The Kaizen of Poker : How to Continuously Improve Your Hold’em Game [1 ed.] 9781773051383

Citation preview

Kaizen THE

OF POKER

HOW TO CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVE YOUR HOLD’EM GAME

SHEREE BYKOFSKY

Copyright © Sheree Bykofsky, 2018 Published by ECW Press 665 Gerrard Street East Toronto, Ontario, Canada m4m 1y2 416-694-3348 / [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Cover design: Chris Tompkins Design Cover images: poker chips and playing cards © Berents / Shutterstock; Vecteezy.com Interior image: poker chips © acott / Vecteezy.com Poker involves gambling, and gambling involves risk and can be addictive and costly to the extreme. Please wager only what you comfortably can afford to lose. If you suspect that you have a gambling problem, it is urgent that you seek immediate professional help.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Bykofsky, Sheree, author The kaizen of poker : how to continuously improve your hold’em game / Sheree Bykofsky. Includes bibliographical references. Issued in print and electronic formats. isbn 978-1-77041-194-4 (softcover). also issued as: 978-1-77305-138-3 (pdf), ISBN 978-1-77305-137-6 (epub) 1. Poker. 2. Poker—Handbooks, manuals, etc. i. title. gv1251.b95 2018 795.412 c2017-906603-x c2017-906604-8

printing: friesens 5 4 3 2 printed and bound in canada

1

This book is dedicated to my two dear departed friends Lou Krieger and Marty Edelston. Lou, writing books with you was one of the greatest pleasures of my life. You inspired me and everyone you encountered to be the best players they could be. Marty, you invented I-power, the Western Kaizen, and introduced me to the principle of Kaizen. You didn’t just talk the talk. In your colorful vest, you truly walked the walk. When you moved your family and your business from New York City to Connecticut, all but one of your hundred employees moved with you. You showed me how everyone in your company used the daily suggestion box and constantly strived to improve. You both inspire me daily, and I feel you watching over me — provided I make the very best choices minute by minute. I am blessed to have known you both personally and to have called you friends. Your huge legacies will live on. You will both be in my heart forever.

Acknowledgments Introduction. Kaizen and Poker and Life

6. Did you create, manipulate, and monitor your image? 33

xiii

xvii

Part One.

The Morning-After Checklist

1

Assessing Your Own Game Be a Realist

1. Did you arrive at the game fresh, focused, awake, and ready to play your A game? 13 Ya Gotta Want It! Eating and Sleeping Well Magically Makes Your Cards Better General Game Improvement One Thing You Can Do Right Now to Raise the Level of Your Game Do You Play Your Best Game All the Time? Why Playing Your Best Game All the Time Is So Vitally Impor tant The Thinnest of Edges Can Separate Winners from Losers

2. Did you think positive thoughts? 21 “I’ll Take the Tournament Win for a Million, Alex”

3. Were you distracted by your cell phone, alcohol, work, thoughts, or anything else? 23 Paying Attention Is Concept Numero Uno

4. Did you play a limit that was within your comfor t zone? 24 Find Betting Limits That Are Right for You The Rules Are the Same, but the Game Is Dramatically Different at Different Limits

5. Did you choose a game that suited you? 27 Assessing New Games Seat Selection Is Critical against Aggressive Players Buy-in Considerations Playing Zone and Table Selection

Fold for an Hour Clothes Don’t Make the Woman Exploit Your Own Image Betting with Confidence Betting on the Don’t Betting with Consistency Tight or Loose: What’s the Best Image for Me? Play off Your Opponents’ View of You

7. Did you fold enough?

44

The One Who Folds the Most Wins the Most The Big Picture Unreality TV In Long Tournaments, It’s Sur vival Early, Aggression Later Can You Learn from Joe?

8. Did you pick the right hands to play? 52 What Makes Poker a Game You Can Beat? Hand Characteristics Guidelines for Playing Your Hands Hands You Can Play Anytime Other Hands Playable in Early Position Playable Hands in Middle and Late Position Hands You Can Play in Late Position Ace-Nine and Similar Trash One Pair and Overcards High Pair and Low Pair One Pair and Two Lower Cards One Pair and One Up, One Down Two Higher Cards and Two Lower Cards Small Pairs and Smallish Connectors Keep the Cost Low When Drawing to a Small Pair When Is a Small Pair a Drawing Hand and When Is It Not? Why Smallish Connectors Are So Vulnerable Requirements for Playing Small Pairs and Smallish Connectors Be Cautious with Small-Gapped Connectors

9. Did you stay aware of the rules, such as protecting your hand? 67 Protect Your Hand

10. Were you aware of the gap concept? 71 The Gap Concept Planning Ahead Domination Dominated Hands Are Big Long Shots Trouble Hands Are Frequently Dominated You’ll Win the Minimum But Lose the Maximum with Trouble Hands Ducking Trouble Hands

11. Did you play with discipline?

77

Desire and Discipline Drawing Hands The Rewards of Being Flexible

12. Did you embrace ever y oppor tunity to gather information? 82 It’s Exhausting to Play Good Poker Grab the Advantage: Study Your Opponents Whenever You Can Just Say Yes

13. Did you control the hands you were in? 86 Smooth Runs the Water Where the River Is Deep

14. Did you study the other players’ personalities and tr y to read their cards? 89 The Ar t of Card Reading Putting Players on Hands Big Cards and the Texture of the Flop Getting a Read When Less Is More Limpers A Paired Flop Presents a Great CardReading Oppor tunity Consistency Reading Minds The Ar t of Studying Other Players Develop a Theory Only the Chip Runner Knows for Sure Windows to the Poker Player’s Soul: Hands, Eyes, Adam’s Apple Hand Tells Are More Easily Read Than Others Watch Your Opponents Fur tive Glances, Posture Changes, StareDowns, and Chip-Slams

Know Who Will Fold to a Good Bluff Get in Their Heads by Getting in Their Skin Profiling Styles: You versus Them The Man of a Cer tain Age Who Limps with A-K Bad Calls The Book of Tells “Tell” Notice All Hands Shown on the River

15. Did you pay attention to the other players’ betting patterns? 110 Notice People’s Betting Patterns Why Adjustments Are Necessary When You Move Up in Limits The More Betting Patterns You Know, the More You’ll Win Don’t Be Stubborn What Other Common Betting Patterns Can Reveal about Your Opponents Big-Hand Betting Patterns

16. Did you manage the maniacs?

115

A Maniac on the Loose Maniac Strategy Star ting Hands Change Value in Very Aggressive Games Why Re-raising Can Be Mandatory, Not Discretionary, in Aggressive Games An Accordion-Style Playing Zone

17. Did you over- or underestimate your opponents? 120 Don’t Underestimate Your Opponents Why Women Often Have an Edge

18. Did you bluff effectively?

125

How Often Do You Bluff ? How Often Should You Bluff ? If Your Bluffs Are Seldom Called Inducing Bluffs Acting Technique If You Look Weak on the River, Someone Will “Bet and Take It” Make a Play for Abandoned Pots; If You Don’t, Someone Else Will

19. Did you recognize strong players? 132 Chip Entitlement Call the Rocks and You’re on the Rocks Don’t Get Cocky

20. Did you recognize weak players? 135 You Can Beat Bad Players and You Can Bluff Good Players Bad Beats Can Be Your Best Friends Calling Stations Are Your Chip Source It’s Only Money Step It Up

21. Did you defend your big and little blinds? 141 Blind Ambition Blind Odds Check-Raising from the Blind Defending Your Blinds Stealing Blinds

22. Did you get married to hands? 148 23. Did you play with hope or skill? 150 You’re Not a Good Player Unless You’re Winning Sometimes Even Hands Like Top Pair, Top Kicker Are Vulnerable . . . . . . Sometimes They Look Downright Unbeatable Pocket Jacks Are a Dilemma

24. Did the talk at the table, including your own, help or hur t you? 155 Truth or Dare Obvious Tilt Don’t Educate

25. Were you one of the exper ts, intermediates, or a fish? 158 Even Good Players Are Bad When They’re Too Consistent You Should Have Several Good Reasons for Every Decision Learn Which Voice in Your Head Is the Most Reliable and Listen to It

26. Did you play hands correctly in position? 162 Position, Position, Position Good Position Position Is Critical to Winning Poker

27. Did you do some math and pay attention to the size of the pot and pot odds? 167 Position Is Even More Impor tant in BigBet Poker Later Folds When the Pot Grows Large

28. Did you bet correctly?

171

How Life Is Both Like and Unlike a Poker Game If You Want Something Done, Do It Yourself Why So Much? A Theoretical Optimal Bet Raising Considerations in Pot-Limit and No-Limit Games When to Raise Other Callers, and When Calling Is a Better Idea Flexible Thinking Based on Your Opponents’ Actions Four Betting Free Card Raise

29. Did you usually win when you got to the river? 181 One Bluffer to a Hand Why Calling a Bet on the River Is the Error of Choice

30. Did you go on tilt?

184

Even Good Players Go on Tilt or Let Down Their Guard Showing the Bluff Leave Your Ego at the Door Not Everyone Is Going to Like You Anyway

31. Did you var y your play?

188

Don’t Overdo It Be a Master of Many Disguises Changing Speeds Limping Can Be Like Painting a “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” Sign on Your Back Choosing Your Raising Hands Raising on the Button When You Have a Big Hand and Someone Raises If the Raiser Is on the Button, Is He Trying to Steal the Pot?

32. Did you play with the correct amount of aggression? 199 Be the Bettor, Not the Caller Raising Out the Wrong Opponents When Checking and Calling Is Better Than Betting Adopt an Orphaned Pot Today

33. Are you aware of specific blunders that you made? 203 Good News; Bad News Have a Goal Ways to Lose Lots of Money Face Up Backing Up — Analyze Your Game by Reverse Engineering Your Play You Should Win When You Call a Bet on the River An Error on the River Often Indicates an Earlier Blunder Growing as a Tournament Player

34. Did your play improve or go downhill as the session progressed? 211 How to Know When to Leave Sometimes Losing Is Better Than Winning

35. Did you play like a winning player . . . even if you didn’t win? 213 Making Money Playing Poker It’s Much Easier to Lose Than to Win Don’t Play with the Rent Money This Is a Stick-up Consider Changing Tables to Lock Up a Win

36. Did you remember what you learned? 218 The Power of Knowledge and Practice

Part Two.

Continuously Improving – The Basics 219 Minimal Math

221

What Are My Odds of Winning? A Shor t Course in Pot Odds Implied Odds Implied Odds Are Always Greater in PotLimit or No-Limit Games Three Rules for Considering Pot Odds

and Implied Odds Figuring Pot Odds with “Outs” A Cheat Sheet for Figuring Odds and Outs Controlling the Odds and Manipulating Them to Your Advantage Basic Arithmetic Count Your Opponents The Magic Number Is Two Game Theory without Games One-Dimensional Play Makes You an Easy Target Varying Your Play Gives Your Opponent a Chance to Make a Mistake How to Use Game Theory to Bluff Optimally How to Randomize Your Bluffing Attempts Learning to Do the Math Yourself How to Figure the Number of Ways to Make a Pair How Many Ways Can I Make Big Slick or Any Other Two-Card Combination? What Are the Odds Against Being Dealt a Pocket Pair of Aces? How Many Possible Flops Are There? If I Star t with a Pair, How Often Will I Flop a Set? Changing Odds to Percentages and Back Again Figuring the Odds for Straights and Flushes How Often Will I Flop at Least a Pair with Ace-King? Using Math to Disguise Your Hand

Tournament Play

254

Top Tournament Strategies Sur vivor Tournament Strategy Making it to the End When You’ve Been Raised Knocked Out with Kings: Why Does It Always Happen to Me? Calling Where’s the Tipping Point? A Good Tournament Bluff Negating Positional Disadvantage Bubblectable Shor t-Stacked Players Must Bet All Their Chips, If They Bet at All When the Most Significant Factor Is the Money Playing the Big Stack; Chipping Up The Long Odds in Tournament Poker

Online Play

273

Generation Gap Take Note of Taking Notes Statistical Evidence Keep the Tournament Lobby Open beside the Playing Table Double Agents Online Tells Playing High-Speed and Shor t-Handed Games What’s Going On Here?

Ask the Exper ts

282

On the Subject of Embracing Challenges Poker Player and Boxer Timothy Dougher ty Jeff Rubens, on Improving at Bridge and Poker Bruce Pandolfini, on Learning Chess, Playing Up, and Repeating to Avoid Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The Quintessential New York Home Game

Afterword. Keep It Going About the Author 301

295

Acknowledgments

It takes a poker room! First, let me thank you for reading this book. If this book helps you, please help me thank those people who helped me to help you. Foremost, Lou Krieger. I wish I could have written dozens more books with you. Taro Gold, thank you for your Daily Inspirations and for allowing me to sprinkle them throughout this book. Thank you, Deirdre Quinn, for helping me keep Lou Krieger’s memory alive by sanctioning my adaptation of the book I wrote with Lou: Secrets the Pros Won’t Tell You About Winning Hold’Em Poker. Everyone should have a hilarious professional comedian as a good friend and book organizer. Michelle Tomko (you should book her!) helped me immeasurably by putting so much information into an order that makes sense, helping me to clarify difficult concepts, keeping the xiii

soup from boiling over, and, most important, making work fun. Others I wish to thank are Bob Leibowitz — my best poker student, now loving husband, and his warm and embracing extended family; Joyce Kaplan, my original game buddy; my adopted family, Andrea and Bruce Polakoff; my “son,” Mark Ruderman; my talented author and insightful, gifted editor of this book, Johnny Kampis (I hope you will enjoy his book Vegas or Bust: A Family Man Takes on the Poker Pros); Alisa Melekhina; the late great Ken Flaton; Ken Schaffer; Sheila Dean and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center; Katharine Sands; Rita Rosenkranz; Carol and Rick Ucci and family, Paul Avrin, Lori Doyle; Scotty Macom, who welcomed me weekly onto his fun radio show on WOND; Dave Coskey (still hoping you will give me a poker radio show); Joy and Martin Brown; Whitney and Marc Ullman; Steve Sapeersaud; Jan and Aldo Cardia; Ellen Massey; Doris Michaels; Charlie Michaels; Chuck Darrow; Anthony Holden; the late Pinky Kravitz, who interviewed me twice; Fred Howard, my poker fan; great assistant Sammy; Barbara, Gina, Nikki, from the best post office; Tom and Joe, my poker students; the gaming authors I represent as a literary agent — Richard Roeper, David Apostolico, Mike Matusow, Warwick Dunnett, Amy Calistri, Tim Lavalli, Henry Stephenson, J. Phillip Vogel, John Bukofsky (spelled with a u and no relation), Phil Hellmuth, Ephraim Rosenbaum, and the late Gary Carson. Despite keeping some secrets for yourselves, your books are all great. More friends and family to thank are Linda Gruber and Bob Detmer, for introducing me to the game in the same serious way that we all played tournament Scrabble® together. Steve Ash, you introduced me to my favorite game ever: no-limit tournament poker. Old friends Jeff Kastner and Ron Tiekert, you helped me shape my early game. Also, Mike Coleman, Jeff Herman, and Joe Wieneke. Thanks, too, to my Park Avenue poker crew, whom I miss: Sam Friedman, concert pianist Abbey Simon, Jonathan Friedman, Maurice Rapp, and, may they rest in peace, Brian Padol and Ring Lardner Jr. (Why did I cash that $43 check that I won from you?!) Thank you, Janet Rosen, my no-longer-secret

xiv SHEREE BYKOFSKY

agent weapon. And thank you, Nolan Dalla, for writing the foreword to the first Secrets book. I’d like to thank the poker room managers, staff, and dealers of New York City who staved off the coppers as I studied the game, played, and wrote. You know who you are! I’d even like to turn the other cheek and thank the cranky players who were sure they were losing their chips to an aggressive female who just got lucky. Thank you for paying me off! More than them, I’d like to thank the mostly lovely players I truly enjoy playing with in those clubs. And from the Borgata to the Bellagio to the MGM National Harbor, I love the legal poker rooms in which I play. Thank you especially to Ellen Fried, my “sister” Ming-Zhu Wu, Mabel Louie, Mike (and Candi) Cimino, Eric, William and Adam, manager Vinnie, and all of the skilled floor people and dealers at the Borgata. Thank you alternate cover models: Ryan Lee, Edward Weich, Robert Wanjala, Clive Harrison, Robert Yass, Harvey Layton, Mitch Essrig, and Fekre Tesgate. I’d like to thank PokerStars for providing a great site that allowed me to live one of my dreams of playing in the World Series of Poker. Thank you to the Bella for hosting my poker boot camp. And thanks to the many people who were pulling for me, including my wonderful friends Sarah Hiner and Margie Abrams of Bottom Line Inc., who kindly provided their dad’s inspirational epilogue, “Be Your Best,” and allowed me to reprint the article on bluffing from their superb newsletter Bottom Line Personal based on my interview with Mike Robbins. I hope you enjoy the nuggets of wisdom from my interviews with experts in various other games: bridge master Jeff Rubens; inspirational boxer/poker player Tim Dougherty; my friends Bruce Pandolfini, who humbly refers to himself simply as a chess teacher; former New York Times book reviewer Christopher Lehmann-Haupt and his (and now my) poker buddies, including Gene Orza; the inspirational Brandon DeNoyer; and the powerfully philosophical Kenna James. Love to my game playing family: Centenarian Aunt Florence,

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

xv

Norman, Sheila, Susan, Laura, Seth, Tina, and Wendy. Also my cousins, especially Mike Baron and Rob Certner. More love to those who I feel watch over me: my dear departed parents and grandparents, my brother Allan, too many friends. I hope there is a heaven and that you are all playing poker there. Pocket aces to everyone at ECW, especially my blessedly patient friend and editor Jack David, Rachel Ironstone, and Tania Blokhuis.

xvi SHEREE BYKOFSKY

Introduction.

KAIZEN AND POKER AND LIFE

In its simplest terms, Kaizen is the Japanese business principle of continuous improvement. Companies that institute Kaizen usually set up systems to institute and reward good suggestions in different departments. I assume you know how to play poker, but no matter how good you are, you can always improve. It is my aim in The Kaizen of Poker to help you determine your level, focus on your own personal weaknesses, and develop a personalized action plan. Poker involves money and, as such, is your business — even if it is only your hobby. If you break down your game into different “departments,” you are then able to focus on different weak and strong skills and improve upon them. You should be rewarded with winning more. And in poker, the prize of winning more is usually money. xvii

Take out your pen, which you should always carry with you, and write down your answers to the following questions: •

What is one thing you can do before you play that will improve your game?

•

What is one thing you can do while playing that will improve your game?

Every single day, take it to the next level. Keep moving in a positive direction. Small steps bring big results. You will see that as you improve your poker playing, you will find applications to improve other areas of your life. And, synergistically, as you improve other areas of your life, your poker game will improve as well. Whether you are cleaning your home, starting a new job, learning a new skill, or stepping up your poker game, becoming conscious of Kaizen will help you achieve more, feel good about yourself, and feel good about the process.

xviii SHEREE BYKOFSKY

Part One

THE MORNING-AFTER CHECKLIST {zyx

This book starts where all of the others have left off because today is a brand-new day. It’s generally a good idea in life to look forward and plan for the future, but not when looking forward means you are in denial about the past. And when denying your past performance is stealing from your bank account. You are probably reading this because last night didn’t bring the results you had hoped for and expected of yourself. Whether you have been winning or losing, it is time to look at yourself in the mirror and take stock! Think of your last session as you answer these 36 questions: 1. Did you arrive at the game fresh, focused, awake, and ready to play your A game? 2. Did you think positive thoughts? 3. Were you distracted by your cell phone, alcohol, work, thoughts, or anything else? 4. Did you play a limit that was within your comfort zone? 5. Did you choose a game that suited you? 6. Did you create, manipulate, and monitor your image? 7. Did you fold enough? 8. Did you pick the right hands to play? 9. Did you stay aware of the rules, such as protecting your hand? 10. Were you aware of the gap concept? (Or did you call raises with A-Q, Q-T, A-7, or 2-3? If so, how did that work out for you?) 11. Did you play with discipline? 12. Did you embrace every opportunity to gather information? 13. Did you control the hands you were in? 14. Did you study the other players’ personalities and try to read their cards? 15. Did you pay attention to the other players’ betting patterns? 16. Did you manage the maniacs? 17. Did you over- or underestimate your opponents? 18. Did you bluff effectively? 19. Did you recognize strong players? 2

SHEREE BYKOFSKY

20. Did you recognize weak players? 21. Did you defend your big and little blinds? 22. Did you get married to hands? 23. Did you play with hope or skill? 24. Did the talk at the table, including your own, help or hurt you? 25. Were you one of the experts, intermediates, or a fish? 26. Did you play hands correctly in position? 27. Did you do some math and pay attention to the size of the pot and pot odds? 28. Did you bet correctly? 29. Did you usually win when you got to the river? 30. Did you go on tilt? 31. Did you vary your play? 32. Did you play with the correct amount of aggression? 33. Are you aware of specific blunders that you made? 34. Did your play improve or go downhill as the session progressed? 35. Did you play like a winning player . . . even if you didn’t win? 36. Did you remember what you learned? Did that honest look in the mirror make you feel good or bad about your play? Consider this! If you gave proud answers to those questions, whether you won or lost, you should know that you did your best. You can be proud of your efforts and realistically optimistic that you will win in the long run. Right now, you can be proud of the very fact that you were willing to take that look in the mirror! That’s a positive step you can take every time you play. And you will win in the long run and feel happy about your performance if you face this checklist after each and every poker session, and make the necessary adjustments that self-knowledge will inspire you to make. I am no different from you. It is my own continuous mistakes and determination to attempt to practice Kaizen that inspired me to conceive of and write this book. At different stages in my poker career, I THE

Kaizen OF POKER

3

found myself making some of the same mistakes over and over. I needed to take stock and plug up the early leaks, such as defending my big blind too often, not walking away a winner when the table changed, committing too much money to a single hand, or drawing to a flush without proper odds. But when I really looked in the mirror, I had to admit to my biggest demon: playing the wrong game. I know my best games are tournament poker and 2/5 NL (no-limit) hold’em, yet occasionally I stay too long at the wrong table. Perhaps I get rivered a few times in a row and patiently wait for good cards or opportunities while growing impatient with one player who thinks for a half hour over every decision as if he were at the final table of the World Series of Poker. What do I do? I look for an open seat in 20/40 limit hold’em. I know the players. I know they play a big range of hands. I know most flops are raised and re-raised and seen by five to six players, and if you win one hand, you can take in $1,000. And so the game lures me. I go there and play as tightly as I can, hoping to win just one hand an hour. Usually, I find I am winning at some point, and then I get a big hand like pocket aces or kings, and I lose because it is very hard for any big pair to hold up in a multiway enormous pot. I end up losing far more than I would like and go home feeling terrible. I promise myself I won’t play that game again. I am human. If you see me at the 20/40 limit poker table, please remind me I wrote this book and should not play 20/40 limit hold’em. Most importantly, if my own bad example helps you, my fessing up was worth it. Every poker player has weaknesses that need to be improved. Note: Since writing this paragraph, I have become a consistent winner at this game, but only play it two or three times a month. I tightened up considerably, use every tool in my poker arsenal, and generally have been leaving while ahead. Even though I am limiting my 20/40 limit hold’em play, I will use it as an example to describe many situations that deal with the value of

4

SHEREE BYKOFSKY

a bet, call, or raise. The structure of limit poker allows for clear mathematical explanations.

ASSESSING YOUR OWN GAME “People are quick to blame chance for their failures and accidents, and quicker still to take personal responsibility for all the good that comes their way.” — taro gold

The best place to start is with a serious assessment of your abilities. Assign a rating to each poker skill: A. I excel B. I am above average C. I am average D. I need to improve

See the following list of poker skills of great players:

SKILLS OF GREAT PLAYERS

How much does this describe you? •

Your game strikes the perfect balance between art and science.

•

You only play when you are rested and alert.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

5

•

You know all of the rules, such as string betting and straddling

•

You try to assess other players’ skills and styles as soon as you arrive at the game.

•

You optimize hand selection.

•

You fold a lot.

•

You are conscious of position and chip stacks.

•

You always try to put other players on hands (guess and reassess their holdings as soon as possible).

•

You know some poker math.

•

You know how to play the players.

•

You manage your image.

•

Whenever you are asked a question, you do not respond with the truth; instead you say something that is beneficial to you and your image.

•

You are patient. (You wait for the right time to make your move. You know that eventually you, too, will flop a straight or the nut flush or a set, and you will eventually flop a big blind special when a weak player failed to raise with A-A.)

•

You take your time to make the right decisions.

•

You make the right-sized bets in no limit and pot limit. (If you want someone to call, you make a bet he can call; if you want someone to fold, you make a bet that will make her fold.)

•

You make good reads, good folds, and good calls.

•

You know how to play aggressively and deceptively.

•

You bluff convincingly and at the right times.

•

You stay on an even keel — never playing on tilt.

•

You remember players’ styles for next time, but you also reassess each time. Good players change their image on a dime.

• 6

You manage your bankroll and play within your limits.

SHEREE BYKOFSKY

•

You don’t chase your money or play to get even. Every hand is a new hand.

•

You know when and how to take breaks and exercise and take care of your health.

•

You know when to call it a day.

•

You keep an accurate accounting of your results.

•

You continuously study the game to improve.

•

You always play your A game.

{zyx

The skills listed here are just a sampling of the multitude of poker skills you might think about improving. This book examines some of the common problems and gives you some of my solutions, but the best way for you to improve your game is to also think about implementing some of your own solutions. You should notice other people doing these things. Do you do them, too? For each item below assign a rating: A. I rarely or never make that mistake B. I sometimes or occasionally make that mistake C. I often make that mistake D. I really have to stop making that mistake “What irritates us most about others is often what we dislike most about ourselves.” — taro gold

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

7

CHARACTERISTICS OF BAD PLAY

Note: I don’t say “bad players,” because everyone can have strengths and weaknesses, and those strengths and weaknesses may vary from player to player and from day to day. How much does this describe you? When people play badly, they: •

Keep doing things they told themselves they would never do again.

•

Always play the same with no variance or nuance.

•

Play until they get even, up, or the bus is leaving — regardless of whether the game is good or bad for them.

•

Think they know the rules or will “catch on” during play. (They don’t know when it is their turn, how much they are allowed to raise, what would constitute a string bet, and so on.)

•

Only play their cards instead of watching opponents and gleaning information.

•

Play feelings, hunches, dog’s birthdays, and cards that are “due” because they haven’t flopped in a while.

•

Play nearly every hand to “fit or fold” and can’t bear to miss a flop.

•

Play the same cards the same way regardless of table position.

8

•

Win Oscars for Bad Hollywood.

•

Play cards, not situations.

•

Never fold aces or other big hands.

•

Ignore the texture of the flop.

•

Chase every straight and flush.

•

Throw good money after bad.

•

Don’t consider other players when making decisions.

•

Are there to have fun instead of to win.

SHEREE BYKOFSKY

•

Show cards for no good reason, and constantly declare holdings and misses.

•

Get bored easily and lose concentration.

•

Are constantly all in.

•

Are sheriffs and calling stations.

•

Bluff too often and try to bully the table — or never bluff.

•

Are sore losers and berate other players, throwing cards and being rude to the dealers.

•

Don’t pay attention to the game.

•

Buy in until even or broke.

•

Go for revenge and try to get players back for bad beats.

•

Drink alcohol at the table and eat junk food.

•

Play overly long sessions that preclude staying focused or professional.

•

Never study poker. After all, it is just a game.

•

Make snap calls, splash the pot, and are obnoxious.

•

Overvalue hands.

•

Play with testosterone over reason.

•

Win a lot and then give it back.

•

Play above their poker bankroll.

•

Play games that don’t suit their style.

•

Play a hand just because they are leaving soon.

•

Don’t keep any records or have any idea how they are doing.

•

Have no A game.

Start improving on those things that you have assigned the letter D, and you should see some positive results instantly.

{zyx

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

9

USE YOUR TOOLS

What are your tools? •

Other poker players

•

Poker books

•

A money journal

•

A playing journal

•

Videos

•

Blogs

•

Chat rooms

•

Podcasts

•

A poker coach

{zyx

BE A REALIST You’ll benefit the most from properly assessing your own level and abilities. If you were to take a poll of poker players and ask them whether they rated themselves below average, average, or above average, you’d find that the vast majority of players consider themselves better than average. Obviously, that can’t be the case. Average, by definition, belongs squarely in the middle. Most players are average, or close to it, but most players don’t assess themselves that way. Good players know how to take advantage of that. The ability to make a personal assessment presupposes the skill and willingness to see oneself as others do. There’s an old poker adage that says, “lf you can’t find the fish in the first 15 minutes after sitting down at the table, you’re it.” And since being a good player is relative to the 10 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

competition, if you are willing and able to assess your own skills in relation to those of your opponents, you can be selective. Pick games you’re a favorite to beat; stay away from games in which you’d be a decided underdog. British author Anthony Holden wrote the book Big Deal about his experience taking a year off to play the tournament circuit. He said this about self-awareness at the poker table: “Whether he likes it or not, a man’s character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life.” Holden’s observation is as clear as it is succinct. To determine your chances in any game, you need to be realistic in rating your own skill. You also should be able and willing to assess your abilities against those of your opponents. Within the massive self-delusion whereby most players believe they are above average at poker resides a terrific opportunity for any player willing to bare his or her soul — but only to his or herself. That is an opportunity to make decisions based on understanding the relative, realistic difference between oneself and the opposition. Now let’s get back to that morning-after checklist!

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

11

one. DID YOU ARRIVE

AT THE GAME FRESH, FOCUSED, AWAKE, AND READY TO PLAY YOUR A GAME?

“Be good at what you do. Don’t worry about being different. Being good is different enough.” — taro gold

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

“I think work on yourself starts with your attitude.” — kenna james

YA GOTTA WANT IT! When you sit down at any poker table, you have to be the one who wants to win the most. Try thinking of your chips as rare and precious magical coins, with magnetic properties to attract more chips. Never let go of your resolve to make each session a winning session. It won’t always happen, but if you’re determined, and have the tools of a good poker player, it will happen more often than not — and make you a long-term winner. Keep good records and be honest with yourself. Are you winning overall or losing? Did you win $200 last night or $183? Don’t lie! If it’s yourself you are deceiving, who is the winner?

13

EATING AND SLEEPING WELL MAGICALLY MAKES YOUR CARDS BETTER Broccoli makes the brain function better than donuts. Drinking water is better than drinking wine. Poker requires a heightened state of alertness. When involved in a hand, you have to be alert to your cards and to your opponents’ actions. You also need to develop an awareness of what others at the table think you might be holding. Occasionally, one of your opponents will take an action or make a gesture that just doesn’t square with your sense of what’s going on in the game. When that happens, when you know something’s going on but just can’t figure it out, don’t make the mistake of ignoring it just because you can’t pinpoint where it belongs in the puzzle. Stay on the lookout and try to determine what that message might mean to any further betting, calling, raising, or folding. What does it mean in light of the hands that are shown down at hand’s end? You may not always be able to piece every part of the puzzle together. But the more you work at it, the more likely you are to expand your knowledge of an opponent. You will also improve your broader ability to synthesize seemingly unrelated pieces of data — and that’s one of the marks of an expert poker player. If awareness is the hallmark of a champion, sensitivities that are switched off will downgrade your game significantly. Anything that dulls the senses can and probably will hurt you at the poker table. That includes alcohol, too much food, or the wrong food, as well as external factors like too little sleep, concerns about personal issues unrelated to poker, battling the flu, or fighting with your spouse. If you aren’t prepared to play at your best level, it’s a good time to go to the movies, do some chores, or anything else you can accomplish on autopilot. The game’s not going anywhere. Regardless of whether you play in a casino or in cyberspace, the game will always be there when you’re ready for it. There are lots of winning poker styles — one can be the aggressor, or the trapper who allows aggressive opponents to do his betting for him, 14 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

or the counterpuncher. But if you’re not playing your best, and are not in touch with your normally fine-tuned senses, your chances of winning are greatly reduced.

GENERAL GAME IMPROVEMENT TIP: Start the day on the treadmill; take breaks; create a

circuit in the casino. TIP: Step away from the cookies. Drink lots of water.

Make healthy food and beverage choices. TIP: Harry Truman said the best habit you can cultivate

is walking fast! It will get you there faster, thus saving time, and you will benefit from improved health. This is an especially important habit for a poker player to cultivate since we spend so much time sitting at the table. There are great watches and devices available to monitor the steps you take each day. TIP: Follow the best strategy after an unacceptable loss:

• • •

Organize your house. Do paid work. Run in the park!

“If you want to have what you have not, you must do what you do not.” — taro gold

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

15

WAYS TO WIN LOTS OF MONEY

•

Aggress with discipline, and rarely call. While playing too passively is never the way to riches, unmitigated, maniacal aggression isn’t the path either. You’ll win a few pots early on, but once your opponents glom on to your uber-aggressive style, they’ll get out of your way with most of their hands but will re-raise whenever they have a good one. Because you’ve been raising with weaker hands, you’ll be the underdog in most of these encounters.

•

Know your limits. Play too small and it’s sometimes tough to take the game seriously. If you play for limits you can’t really afford, you run the risk of putting a severe crimp in your bankroll or playing scared and being quickly assessed by your adversaries as a tight, predictable player who will fold at the first sound of chips rattling in someone’s hand.

•

Give up the little pots; win the big ones. Yes, keep grabbing the abandoned little pots, but if you’re in doubt about whether you’re beat and the pot is small, fold. Use your image as a tight (conservative and careful) player to secure and nail down the large multiway pots. In a tournament, avoid big stacks. If you go up against a big stack in a tournament, he can put you all in. If you lose, it’s bye-bye tournament; while if he loses, he’ll still have some weapons in hand for another battle somewhere down the line.

•

Go after the tight, the timid, and the newbie. As poker expert Mike Caro says, “If they’re helpless, and they can’t defend themselves, you’re in the right game.” Poker is

16 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

nothing more than social Darwinism played with cards. Show no mercy. Eat the weak. •

Take reasonable risks. Mom’s old advice, “All things in moderation,” works well here. Don’t take unnecessary risks and don’t be overly cautious. Learning to function within these boundaries will come with practice, study, thinking about the game, and playing.

•

Learn to do what comes unnaturally. Some of poker is logical, but there’s a lot to the game that’s just plain counterintuitive. To win some pots, you’ve got to bet when you have nothing while acting like you’ve got a lot. To win by trapping, you have to feign weakness and let your prey come to you.

•

Fold big hands when you feel beat. The second-best poker hand is nothing more than the first loser. And it doesn’t matter how big your hand is; if you believe your opponent has a bigger one, get out while you can still save a bet or two.

•

Play when the game is good and you figure to be favored over your opponents regardless of whether you’re winning now or whether you’re stuck a rack or two. The game will always be there, and the decision to leave the table ought to have everything to do with the quality of the game, and precious little to do with whether you are currently ahead or behind.

{zyx

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

17

ONE THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO RAISE THE LEVEL OF YOUR GAME Sometimes the truth is so self-evident, so obvious, and so clear that all we need to do is hold fast with all our might. Every poker player should know this, even raw beginners. But frequently disconnects are found between information and know-how. If you can truthfully answer “yes” to the following question, there’s no need for you to read any further. But if your answer is less than an unequivocal “yes,” keep reading.

DO YOU PLAY YOUR BEST GAME ALL THE TIME? If you don’t play your best game all the time, ask yourself why. If you were somehow able to measure the difference between your best game and some lesser level you play at from time to time, you could calculate the money you are giving away by playing below your ability. If you want to raise your game, you have to play your best game, and not slip from that lofty pedestal you’re perched on when you’re playing well. This ought to be easy. No new skills are needed. You don’t have to learn any new ploys to spring on your unsuspecting opponents, and you needn’t train your mind to perform a single dreaded statistical calculation in the midst of a poker hand. All you have to do to upgrade your game is to play as well as you can. And why wouldn’t you want to? Aside from whatever social gratification poker provides, if you’re playing to win money, shouldn’t you want to play your best?

WHY PLAYING YOUR BEST GAME ALL THE TIME IS SO VITALLY IMPORTANT Professional poker players, in limit poker terms, can expect to win one big bet per hour in a mid-limit game. But suppose you always played 18 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

your best — never faltering — while your opponents played the way they do right now. Some play well; some never play as well as they can. A few otherwise skillful players even believe in hunches and will cold-call a raise with 9-7 suited because . . . well, they just had a hunch. Never mind that most of the time the flop is not going to hit their 9-7 strongly — as it probably needs to — and when they gaze up at a board that just kicked them to the curb, they’ll eventually realize they cold-called a raise with nine-high. Ugh!

THE THINNEST OF EDGES CAN SEPARATE WINNERS FROM LOSERS Now if you’re playing for very high limits, that one big bet per hour guideline goes right out the window. Let’s assume you’re playing $2,000/ $4,000 Texas hold’em against a group of opponents who know everything you do about poker and possibly more. But if you never play less than your best, while they slip every so often, say once a week, you might be able to beat that game for one big bet a week, or maybe even two. If you could maintain that razor-thin edge, you’d win somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000 annually. One of the interesting things about poker is how razor-thin edges can turn into large sums of money at the end of the day. In a game like that, you aren’t allowed the latitude to play a hunch hand. If you do, you’re toast. You can get away with it in low- and mid-limit games. Many of your opponents are also playing less than perfectly and their mistakes frequently offset whatever suboptimal plays you make in your own game. In essence, they’re giving back the money you gave to them. Players who stick with their best game have an almost invisible edge. It’s one you’ll never even see, no matter how closely you watch the game. You won’t be able to assess that Joe plays perfectly all week while Tony made one error early Tuesday morning, and that’s the reason Joe makes $400K a year while Tony is frantically dog-paddling to keep his head THE

Kaizen OF POKER

19

above water. One bet a week won’t make or break you in a mid- or lower-limit game. The edge there is not that close, and most of your opponents play below their skill level a good portion of the time, too. But that’s the very reason you can significantly increase the amount of money you’re earning without adding any additional arrows to your quiver. Just play well all the time. The choice is ours. And when it’s completely our choice — when we have no one to blame but ourselves, when we can’t deflect the results we achieve because at the end of the day we either played up to our potential or we didn’t — there’s nowhere to run and hide in the corners of our minds where we contemplate why we failed. But we never have to go into that dark side. Never. All that is required to keep the light shining is to use our desire and force of will to turn knowledge into know-how and apply it. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #1: I will arrive at the game fresh,

focused, awake, and ready to play my A game.

20 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

“Act out a play of victory, decide you are going to win. Visualize the result and engrave it in your mind. When you manifest the doubtless conviction that you can do it, then you can do it.” — taro gold “The victorious win first and then go to battle, while the defeated go to battle first and then seek to win.” — sun tzu

two. DID YOU THINK

POSITIVE THOUGHTS?

“An unhappy person and a happy one will have different perceptions of the same circumstances. The difference is found not in the circumstances, but in the two states of life.” — taro gold

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

“Manifestation begins with expectation.” — taro gold

“I’LL TAKE THE TOURNAMENT WIN FOR A MILLION, ALEX” The world seems to be divided between those who love games and those who don’t. Those who do love games, like me, can’t get enough of them. I frequently turn non-game situations into games and look for every opportunity to create games within games. When I watch the TV show Jeopardy!, for example, or Wheel of Fortune, on which I was a contestant, I begin each show by guessing who is going to win. I have a great record of predicting the winner. It’s almost always the one who is alert and relaxed at the beginning of the show, the one who is the most comfortable talking about him or herself during the interview with Alex Trebek or Pat Sajak. I do this at the poker table as well, and I recommend that 21

you do the same. When you’re playing poker, guess who is going to win. Guess who is going to “give back” their chips or steadily lose them. The better you get at this guessing game, the better you’ll be at poker, and the more chips you’ll take home at the end of the night. TIP: Don’t tell bad beat stories. Don’t complain that you

always miss the flop. TIP: Just as it is important to enjoy your work, it is

important to enjoy your poker sessions. Life is short, and every minute counts. If you aren’t enjoying it, go do something else. Plus, thinking positive thoughts and having fun will make you play better, and when you play better, you will do better.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #2: I will think positive thoughts.

22 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

three. WERE YOU

DISTRACTED BY YOUR CELL PHONE, ALCOHOL, WORK, THOUGHTS, OR ANYTHING ELSE?

“Question habit. Eliminate negativity. Purify your life.” — taro gold “If we wish to eliminate the negative, unhealthy aspects of our lives, we would do well to increase the positive, healthy ones. Once strengthened, they will naturally help us transform the negative.” — taro gold

Playing well means you were not distracted. You were focused on the game. Needing improvement means you were distracted by your cell phone and other things.

PAYING ATTENTION IS CONCEPT NUMERO UNO From the moment you sit down until you cash out your winnings, you have to think of yourself as at work. If you were a surgeon or a bus driver, would you be drinking beer or taking calls at work? If you were an air traffic controller, would you be reading a book?

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #3: I will not be distracted by my

cell phone, alcohol, work, thoughts, or anything else.

23

four. DID YOU PLAY

“In an archery contest, when the prize is earthenware, a contestant shoots with skill. When the prize is a belt buckle, he becomes hesitant, and when the prize is pure gold, he becomes nervous and confused. There is no difference as to his skill, but, because there is something he desires, he allows outward considerations to weigh on his mind. Those who consider external things of great importance become weak within.” — chuang-tzu

A LIMIT THAT WAS WITHIN YOUR COMFORT ZONE? Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not. Play your best game no matter what the limit.

FIND BETTING LIMITS THAT ARE RIGHT FOR YOU Somewhere you’ll find betting limits that are perfect for you, and you need to figure that out so you’re comfortable with your game. Bill Gates has been seen at the Bellagio in Las Vegas playing poker in a game with betting limits of three and six dollars. People walking by were astounded that the world’s richest man was essentially playing for matchsticks. But if stakes have to have some meaning, Bill Gates is in a league populated by very few others. What are appropriate stakes for someone of his wealth? Should he play poker for betting limits of $250,000/$500,000? Or maybe a little more? Even though he might be able to afford these stakes, such a game may be nonexistent. Gates, 24

secure in the knowledge that for all practical purposes, none of the stakes he could find on a typical day in Las Vegas would really be meaningful to a man of his wealth, is as comfortable playing $3/$6 as he would be playing $2,000/$4,000. If you’re in Bill Gates’s financial league, it won’t matter what stakes you select, either. But if you’re like most of us, somewhere there are betting limits that work for your own financial and psychological circumstances. Here’s the litmus test that works for most poker players: a loss should hurt but should not cripple us, while a win should be exhilarating. And don’t bet the rent money, whatever you do.

THE RULES ARE THE SAME, BUT THE GAME IS DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT AT DIFFERENT LIMITS Tournaments and cash game poker are like two different games, and so are different cash game levels. The higher up you go in betting limits, the better your opponents tend to be. While you’ll occasionally run into some appallingly bad players who can afford to play high-stakes poker and enjoy it whether they win or lose, most of the time, bigger games are tougher games. You’ll find fewer players in each pot, because players at this level have learned to be selective. You’ll also see more raises, because they’ve learned to be aggressive, too. In a passive, low-limit game, where most of the players who enter a pot come in calling, position is not as important as it is in a game where raising is the order of the day. After all, if you can see the flop for one bet, you’re in almost as good a shape from early position as you are if you’re the last to act. But not in an aggressive, higher-limit game. Many players have difficulty making the transition from lower betting limits to higher-limit games. Obviously, as the games get higher, the bets get higher. Bets and raises are usually calculated in terms of how many times they exceed the big blind, prior bet, or pot size, as well as the potential caller’s strength THE

Kaizen OF POKER

25

or weakness and stack size. There is math involved, but there is psychology, too. It is more art than science to figure the correct bet size for each individual level and each individual table.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #4: I will play a limit

that is within my comfort zone.

26 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

five. DID YOU CHOOSE A GAME THAT SUITED YOU?

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.” — charles darwin

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

ASSESSING NEW GAMES If you are the new player at an established game and you see that everyone folds when one player bets, be careful when calling him. He probably only raises with premium hands. Similarly, if one player raises and everyone else calls, it’s probable that this player raises with lessthan-premium hands. It’s important to spend some time checking over the game you’re playing in when you first sit down. In fact, if you have a good vantage point, you should be clocking the game even before you are seated at the table. Fifteen to 20 minutes should be time enough to get a good handle on your opponents. Here’s what to look for:

27

•

Happy games, lots of chips, a jovial table atmosphere. This typifies a game full of players who are having fun. Players enjoying themselves tend to be a lot looser than those who are scrutinizing everything that goes on. If you see lots of friendly flirting going on, that’s good, too. And if your opponents are drinking anything stronger than bottled water, that’s also a good sign.

•

Who’s loose, who’s tight? Within a few minutes you should have a handle on which players are callers, which are aggressive, and who won’t gamble unless they have unbeatable hands. There are all sorts of clues to loose play in addition to the obvious ones, such as seeing the kinds of hands they show down. This is a clue to the kinds of starting hands they’re prone to play in early, middle, or late position.

•

Who’s passive, who’s aggressive? You can be loose and passive as well as loose and aggressive. You can be tight and passive as well as tight and aggressive. Obviously, aggressive players are more dangerous because they are less likely to get out of your way when you bet, might not throw away a hand if you bluff, and may even play back at you by re-raising with or without a strong hand.

•

Watch every showdown. Look closely whenever a hand is turned face up at its conclusion. Then replay the hand in your mind. Try to scope out the players in that pot based on how they bet and reacted to bets and raises, given the hands they were holding. This is the absolute best way to learn the playing styles of your opponents.

•

Who’s winning, who’s losing? While winners tend to be the better players, the short-term variance in poker can play havoc with

28 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

judgment when all you have is 15 minutes to determine which players seem to be doing well and which ones are stuck for the day. Chip stacks aren’t always good indicators. Some players just buy in for more money than others. But if you examine chip stacks and correlate them with a person’s demeanor — happy or sad, upbeat or morose, outgoing or introspective — you should have a good idea about the game’s winners and losers.

SEAT SELECTION IS CRITICAL AGAINST AGGRESSIVE PLAYERS Seat selection is critical when playing against a maniac. Always position yourself to his left. Since the maniac will raise on weak hands as well as his better ones, you want to be in position to re-raise whenever you have a strong hand, increasing your chances of playing heads-up against the maniac. Since you will usually re-raise hands that are significantly stronger than his, you’ll hold the advantage throughout the play of the hand. In addition, other opponents may recognize you’re a very aggressive, albeit highly selective player. Your actions will demonstrate you have no fear of the maniac. Although your opponents will seldom admit it, many of them are apprehensive whenever a maniac joins a game. Since you will only re-raise before the flop with hands that have some intrinsic value, other opponents will respect your raises — regardless of whether or not the maniac is active in the hand. This, of course, provides excellent support for an occasional bluff, particularly on those occasions when you’re involved in a hand with fairly tight, weak, or timid players. Remember, they’ve watched you slug it out with the maniac, and show down a real hand whenever you’re called. While maniacs can raise your stress level and blood pressure, remember this: they’re ultimately no stronger than the cards they hold. Frequently, they’re a lot weaker. As long as you position yourself to act after the maniac, and can withstand the highly volatile nature of the game, you’ll be favored in the long run. After all, a maniac’s worst THE

Kaizen OF POKER

29

enemy is himself. They’re aggressive, all right, but seldom selective. They know one tune, and one tune only — although they play it incessantly, wielding it over their opponents like a whip. Their only strength is also their greatest weakness, and when you learn to deflect their one-note strategy and use it to your advantage, the crack of their own whip can also destroy them.

BUY-IN CONSIDERATIONS What should you buy in for? It is up to you and your bankroll and your personality whether to buy in for the minimum, the maximum, or something in between. There are advantages to each. If you bring your whole session bankroll and lose it all in one hand after 10 minutes, are you willing to go home? If you buy in for the maximum, you stand to earn the most when you play your best. If you buy in for the minimum, you may want to take more risks and double up, and then play with “their money.” If you lose it, you can buy in again without going over your limit, and play a bit tighter. If you do lose your money with a risky move early on, you can use that to your advantage if you are able to tighten up and play very cunningly.

PLAYING THE SIDE GAMES AT TOURNAMENTS

Many professionals travel the tournament circuit, but never play in a tournament. Instead, they can be found in the cash games that spring up whenever there’s a big tournament in town. There’s often a feeding frenzy created at big tournaments, and many players sit in cash games that are much larger than they are accustomed to. While big tournaments attract some of the world’s best poker players, they also attract some of the biggest fish, too. In fact, some notable tournament 30 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

players are notoriously poor players when it comes to cash games. They’re known to blow back all of their winnings — and then some — in the big side games that take place at tournament time.

{zyx

PLAYING ZONE AND TABLE SELECTION When you’re playing poker, always look to the playing zone when attempting to determine what kind of hands other players might be holding, or when you’re trying to assess how safe or vulnerable your own hand might be. Always remember that the playing zone is neither fixed nor immutable. It changes depending on the game and your opponents. Sane players play sane hands, and you can often determine where you stand in relation to them by understanding the playing zone and how your hand and your opponents’ probable holdings relate to those hands. But in loose games — the kind where everyone sticks around to see the flop — the playing zone is unbounded and might even extend across the entire deck. When you’re in a game like that, be careful. When it’s tough to put your opponent on a hand, it’s difficult to know how your hand stacks up against his. It’s times like these when you’re likely to find yourself losing pots you figured you’d win. But the silver lining in this cloud of increased fluctuations and variance is that all of those excess callers make for bigger pots when you win them. And winning money is what poker is all about. If you are a high-limit player, you will find that good plays, and especially good bluffs, are useless at lower limits. Few are good enough to fold. If they don’t know what they are doing, you can’t know what they are doing. I once overestimated my clueless opponent and made a bad read. The guy made a straight on the turn and checked. The board paired on the river, and he checked again. So I made a good strong bet, and he THE

Kaizen OF POKER

31

reluctantly called. Of course I did not beat his straight. That would’ve been a good strategy on his part to maximize his pot if he knew I would bet with nothing — which I am certain he did not.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #5: I will choose a game that suits me.

32 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

six. DID YOU CREATE, MANIPULATE, AND MONITOR YOUR IMAGE?

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — taro gold

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

“There’s a time for everything, but most people can’t wait.” — taro gold

FOLD FOR AN HOUR The best thing you can do to create a tight image is what I call “fold for an hour.” That is powerful advice. Do not take it literally, but use it as a mantra when you first sit down at the poker table. The benefits of “folding” for an hour are manifold (pun intended). While creating your super-tight, I-never-bluff, I-never-play-bad-cards image, you have a chance to study the other players. Who in the game is genuinely tight? Who plays every hand? Who sees every flop? Who makes bad calls? Who calls re-raises with Q-T or A-9? Who is on tilt (making emotionally charged decisions)? Where are you in position to these players? How

33

are their stack sizes? How are their chips stacked? Who is reading a book and not paying attention to anything but their own cards? It takes a good 15 minutes or so to get the lay of the land. When you finally pick a hand to play, it must be a premium hand. Sure, if you’re dealt a big pocket pair, you can get involved in a pot. You’ll figure to come away with the money at the end of the hand. But stay away from speculative hands until you’ve got your opponents characterized and know their playing propensities. A good rule of thumb is to try to win the first hand you play to conclusion. If you do that, you will have established yourself as a good, tough player in the minds of your adversaries, and you’ll be off to a great start. And by trying to win the first hand you play, you are saying, in essence, that you will avoid all but the very best hands when you first sit down at the table. If you don’t win the first hand you choose to play, perhaps make a hero fold (fold a big hand) and show the fold. For example, raise with jacks. Then when the flop has a queen and somebody bets, show your J-J and fold. That says you only play good cards, and that you will back down when you think you are beat. It says you can’t bluff. It says you are incapable of betting your J-J when there is a queen on the board. Of course, that is not true. Later, you will raise with 8-8, and when the flop comes A-K-3, you will make a big bet, and everyone will assume you have A-K and fold. Some people say it is never beneficial to show your cards unless you have to, but I find it is beneficial to show them in these reputationbuilding situations. What I have never done and will never condone is “showing the bluff.” When someone shows a bluff at the table, I almost always find a spot later to get their chips. It may feel good to the player at the time, but few players are good enough to overcome the fact that they just gave away their game big time. The sharks will hunt them down and swallow them whole. What’s your goal? Be the master of your own destiny. Create your own image. Understand which images are fake and which are real.

34 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

Manipulate pots and create positive expectations for yourself by correctly reading other players’ styles. Here is a bluff that has worked for me more than once. After “folding for an hour,” perhaps playing just two hands, I then called a raise in the big blind. The board was 8-8-2, and the pre-flop raiser made the expected continuation bet of $35. I tanked (thought a long time) and made it $125. He showed 7-7 and folded. I had A-9 clubs. When the board is paired, and you know the pre-flop raiser is going to bet regardless of the flop, and you are confident that your image is solid and tight, you can easily represent trips by check-raising in a serious and convincing way. *Note that three of a kind is called a set when you have a pair in your hand and flop the third, but it’s called trips when you have one in your hand that matches the pair on the board. A good image to have is as someone who only bets with something. I frequently cultivate that image by not making a continuation bet. In other words, in the first few hands I play, and then some later hands, when I raise pre-flop in late position and then miss the flop, I check. I fold willingly when someone bets on the turn if I have nothing. This sets me up later for some great bluffs.

CLOTHES DON’T MAKE THE WOMAN Let me be clear. When I discuss the image you are creating, I am talking about the image you create through playing, and not through disguises like glasses or hoodies. The most important image to develop is the image of being a tight or loose player, and that has nothing to do with your physical appearance. In life — and often in poker — you’ve got to be able to walk the walk as proficiently as you talk the talk. In the long run, all the gold chains, Rolex watches, and assorted other bling won’t make you a poker player any more than a scalpel will turn a tree surgeon into a brain surgeon. You’ve got to be able to play the game to win. But

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

35

in tactical play, image is sometimes all you’ve got at your disposal to win a pot. It may be all you have to give your opponent the false sense of comfort he needs to bet into your powerhouse hand.

EXPLOIT YOUR OWN IMAGE What people don’t realize is the special property of the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) card is that it’s a license to bluff! Both the MCA (Man of a Certain Age), who only plays premium hands like A-K and A-A, but limps with them, and the WCA (Woman of a Certain Age), who never bluffs and has the nuts if she is betting, but will call with the second nuts, could pull in at least 10 percent more pots with carefully timed, uncalled bluffs. Those who are in the best position to take advantage of a tight image are people with an AARP card, ladies in general, and novices. But don’t get caught! When you first sit down, even if you are a loose player, do an obvious tight move that only the most oblivious players will miss. Fold the button when everyone else has limped! Casually fold the little blind when there has been no raise! These are not good plays because position is valuable on the button and pot odds are a consideration in the little blind, but these moves should make the point that you are a very tight player. Say something like, “I can’t believe I can’t get any hands!” Now, of course, don’t just make the image, remember to use the image! But use it judiciously. It is very important to get away with all of your bluffs. If you do get caught bluffing, you actually have to become that very tight player. Or you have to create a new image and a new plan. Stay in control of your image, the hands in which you choose to participate, and your poker destiny.

36 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

IMAGE PROBLEMS

•

You never think about your image.

•

You let the cards create your image.

•

You don’t recognize other people’s images.

•

You don’t recognize whether other people are trying to give you a false image.

The best image of you at a poker table is the one that you create yourself. Some very tight players like to create a false image by straddling their first hand; that is, placing a live raise under the gun, which is a very wild move. Once they have established their wild image, they settle into their tight game and hope to garner chips that otherwise would not come to them. But I find the best image I can create is just the opposite. I feel the most success can be had by creating a very tight image and then exploiting it later with carefully timed bluffs.

{zyx

BETTING WITH CONFIDENCE Betting with confidence every time you put chips in the pot is critical. Bet the same way each time, and you won’t give your opponent a read on whether you have a good hand or a marginal one. Every astute player is always on the lookout for tells, and the more you can do to keep from broadcasting them, the better. It’s not only hand motions that give players away; there are other tells, too, and the pros know them all. There’s another aspect to confidence. My friend reported to me that when he calculated his results, he found that he won so much money

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

37

in one club that it covered all of his losses at another. He realized this result was not because the players were necessarily worse in one of the clubs; it was because he felt so much more confident in the club where he often won that he simply played better poker there. From the pillow on your chair to the air quality, it’s very important to make yourself as comfortable as possible in order to play your best.

BETTING ON THE DON’T After the flop, your confident bet or raise will usually say, “I have the best hand; you should fold.” But you can take down even more pots if you realize your bet can just as easily say, “You have none of this; I am going to claim this pot as mine.” You may have none of it either, but in the right position, with no value to be gained by someone calling with their own nothing, your bet will be just as strong as if you flopped a set. You can bet just as strongly that other people don’t have a particular card — for example, a deuce that would give them three of a kind — as much as if you have that card. Don’t overdo this, and you’ll be swimming in chips. After all, much of the time the flop won’t improve your hand, but it won’t help your opponent’s either. That leaves a large vacuum in the center of the table, and it’s often the first and most confident appearance of aggression that wins the pot. But you can’t take advantage of this ploy too often. Sometimes the flop will appear to hit your opponent and do nothing for you. Just let it be. If you are confronting a number of active opponents, the picture becomes entirely different. Then you can safely assume that if the flop does not help you, it probably helps at least one of your adversaries, and one is all it takes to beat you. Against a multitude of opponents, the opposite side of this coin doesn’t work too well either. It’s much easier to bluff one opponent than it is to bluff three, four, five, or more. For one thing, the more 38 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

opponents, the more money there is likely to be in the pot. Therefore, chances are greater that at least one of them will call with even a semblance of a hand just because the pot is so large. And with more opponents, it’s far more likely that the flop — which provided absolutely no help to you — will be a godsend to someone else.

RIVER BETS

Some players make a bet on the river so they don’t have to show their rags. This is a bluff, of sorts. If they’re called, they’ll still have to show their rags and lose the amount they bet. If they’re not called, they’ll have stolen the pot.

{zyx

BETTING WITH CONSISTENCY Pros always bet confidently, placing chips in the betting area with speed and a quiet confidence, stating “raise” whenever they choose that action. The purpose of betting rapidly is to convey a sense of strength and to provoke a quicker, rather than a well-thought-out, reaction from an opponent. But the key is to be boringly consistent when betting or raising, so as not to provide tells that your opponents can use to decipher your hand. The way you look at your cards, cover your cards, check, or call, or place your money in the pot is the only part of your game that should be consistent. You must not be consistent in the way you play your hands. A good strategy is to pay attention to yourself. Like a champion bowler who strives for perfect consistency, always cover your cards with a THE

Kaizen OF POKER

39

chip and put your hand and face in the same position. Direct your eyes to the same spot. Bet and raise with the same movement of the same hand. Note that people often stare at the card that has helped them. If you’re afraid you’re exhibiting tells like this, try wearing a poker hat and sunglasses. Look like a player if you’re not. If you have mastered the game and can control your tells, try looking like a newbie if you’re a shark. Say, “How much can I raise?” But when you hear a real newbie say that, fold! If you’re new to the game, you can even make an obvious early bad call, so your opponents will peg you for a weak player. When that happens, you’ve opened the door to myriad opportunities to outfox your opponents, each of whom thinks he has a pretty good line on your play. But be careful not to go too far with this. If you play too many hands and are viewed as a fish by too many players, more people will try to beat you. It will be harder to win hands against so many opponents. When too many players are in every hand, the chances increase that someone else will either have a better hand or develop a hand that will beat yours. If this happens, you need to be extra vigilant about getting proper pot odds to take down just the largest pots and leave the little ones for the true fish. This can all be encapsulated in a few short words of advice: be the one who folds the most. It’s a profitable way to play. But don’t forget to have some tricks up your sleeve, too. If you’re the informed newcomer who can sense when an expert has called you just to outplay you, turn the tables on them and outplay them! When your hand hits and they’re on your left, the best play you can make is to trap them. Check and call until the fish has reeled in the fisherman and then check-raise! Get those experts to call your extra bet on the river, and take down a huge pot. If you’re a good player who is roundly underestimated, you can take advantage of every single player who comes after you. Now that’s a seafood dinner!

40 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

A COMMON STRATEGY AGAINST A NEWBIE OR “FISH”

A common strategy against a newbie or “fish” is simply to call with any two cards and then outplay them. This strategy presupposes the newbie will call far too often before the flop. Then he’ll show a willingness to toss his hand away if the flop does not help him. If that’s his style, you can play aggressively whenever your opponent displays a passive attitude toward the pot. Your bet is likely to take it, even if you are on a stone-cold bluff. Some new players will play just like I described, and they do so because they are new to the game, unsure about what the proper course of action should be. They’re reluctant to look foolish by calling with a weak hand and then having to show it down at the hand’s conclusion.

{zyx

TIGHT OR LOOSE: WHAT’S THE BEST IMAGE FOR ME? Which image works best? Is one right or wrong? I don’t think one size fits all. Some people just convey a conservative image by dress, grooming, and countenance. It’s tough for them to convince anyone they are wild and crazy guys. Others look loony enough to convey that image without ever having played a single hand. If you have limited acting skills, pick a stereotype that’s closest to your own personality and go with it. If you’re a conservative, buttoned-down preppy, make yourself appear to be a very tight player and you’ll get away with bluffs with regularity. If you look like a mad scientist or a leftover hippie wondering where the ’60s went, make your opponents think that that’s the real you. Whenever

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

41

you bet your good hands, you can be assured of being called by lesser holdings. What you can’t do is work both sides of the street at once. It’s impossible to convince your opponents that you’re simultaneously a very tight and very loose player. So pick an image and stick with it, at least for the remainder of your playing session. Then enhance it, and watch your opponents tilt just a wee bit. They’ll buy into an extreme version of whatever your natural playing style and personality happen to be, and they’ll pay you off accordingly. You may find yourself in another city, at a new club, with all new players. Try out a different table image. Or the first cards that you are dealt may determine your new table image. For example, you may get dealt three monster hands in a row right off the bat. You may never have to show these hands, but you do need to realize that some players at the table will think you’re a maniac. Others will think you play too many hands. You’ll have to have the goods next time you raise. Figure out how you’re regarded, and play accordingly. Incidentally, when you are in a new city, it’s important to remember that no matter how bad the players are, the newcomer (you) has the disadvantage in that they all know each other. See how they regard each other and let that be your guide until you get to know them.

PLAY OFF YOUR OPPONENTS’ VIEW OF YOU Capitalize on other players’ incorrect assessments of you. If they think you’re a maniac, then only bet and raise with big hands or the nuts. You’ll take some hits because too many people will call, but you’ll also get paid off big time most rivers. So be sure to make those river bets, unless you’re afraid that someone who has hit the river will re-raise you. Conversely, if the players at the table think you’re very tight, you can bluff. Just work hard never to get called with a bad hand. If someone does call you on the river, you may say something like, “I missed my 42 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

draw.” Hope that the next player will claim the pot with a pair so that you can quickly muck your hand. Take note: bluffers do this regularly.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #6: I will create,

manipulate, and monitor my image.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

43

seven. DID YOU

FOLD ENOUGH? Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you played too many hands. Sometimes it can mean you played too tightly and, therefore, too few hands.

“Patience is the companion of wisdom.” — taro gold

THE ONE WHO FOLDS THE MOST WINS THE MOST When you first sit down at a poker table, it is important to assess the players as soon as possible. Who is winning, who is losing, what are their unique playing styles? Who plays well, who plays straightforwardly or by the book, who traps, who is cautious, who plays too many hands, who is aggressive? Most important, who has the chips? Inevitably, you’ll see a busy table with lots of banter, bluffing, raising, re-raising, mulling over, and staring down. There’s one player with no chips reading Card Player, another one wolfing down ravioli with smelly Parmesan cheese — and there’ll be one player almost hidden behind Fort Chip. She has

44

10 stacks of 40 chips each neatly arranged side by side. She’s peering out intensely but serenely above the stack, watching the goings-on with much interest. You’re scratching your head over her, because you can sit there for quite a while and never see her play a hand. But when you blink, look away, and turn back, she’s raking in another gigantic pot and neatly arranging her 11th stack. This is the player who folds the most. Provided she’s not too tight a player, you want to be this player. Isn’t that why you’re playing? To win? The one who folds the most wins the most.

THE BIG PICTURE Now that you have that concept down pat, forget what I just told you. Folding the most is an excellent strategy for a new player because the number-one mistake new and bad players make is playing too many hands. The big picture is to not be a nit (a too-tight player, aka a grinder) but to appear as one by playing 90 percent like a nit and by the book and playing decidedly un-nitlike 10 percent of the time. Bluff and be creative only when the pots are big, and try not to get caught. (But getting caught doesn’t matter if the pot is big enough.) If they see that you called a raise with 4-5 suited, and then won a huge pot, they won’t know what to do with you when you go back to being a nit for a while.

WATCH YOUR NEW STACK GROW

Here’s a trick. When you start folding hands you’re aware that experts don’t play, such as suited high/low cards or 7-9, pretend you haven’t folded. Now, count the money you would have saved. Similarly, when you start earning money you used to leave on the table, make a separate stack of the money you would not have earned in the past.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

45

When you start realizing you’re behind and stopped paying off the winner, especially on the river, consider the money you didn’t give away as money saved. Add that to your separate stack. Now you’re the winner!

{zyx

UNREALITY TV Most new players who have become hooked on poker by watching it on TV are seeing something that’s not really there. Anyone who tries to learn the game in this way is in for a rude awakening in the real world. TV truncates the game. The viewer gets to watch only the exciting hands, the big bluffs, the tough laydowns, and they get to see every hand face up. Plus, the commentary is often misleading. The commentators sometimes say, “I wonder why he thought so long, Mike,” without ever referencing pot odds or the size of the blinds. When you’re watching poker on TV, the announcers only intermittently tell you how many chips each player has or what one person’s chip stack is relative to another’s at a particular moment. Moreover, they almost never inform you as to what the different color chips are worth. Most important, they don’t even tell you what the blinds are during a given hand! These are essential facts for players to keep in mind during each and every moment of the game — and particularly at the final table of a tournament. The fascination with poker is guaranteed to accomplish two things: First, it will send droves of new players into casinos and card rooms everywhere, just aching to be dealt in. Second, if they learned their poker from watching TV, they learned incorrectly! How can that be? If they watch how top pros such as Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Selbst, and Jason Mercier play, why will the 46 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

TV audience be learning incorrectly? Won’t those bold calls and larcenous bluffs, the kind that seemingly work so well on TV, work in your neighborhood card room, too? The answer, in a word, is “No!” The reason it won’t work can be found in the observations of Marshall McLuhan, the University of Toronto professor who first told the world “The medium is the message.” In so doing, he revolutionized the way we view and understand communications. Well, McLuhan may never have played a hand of poker in his life. We don’t know for sure, but his observation was spot on. According to McLuhan, the nature of the medium through which a message is conveyed — whether it be through newspaper, television, or radio — is as significant as the content of the message itself. He saw media as an extension of mankind, much the same as our voices and our ability to put pen to paper are extensions of ourselves. The medium may be the message, but no TV is made of felt. To put McLuhan’s theory in poker terms, what TV-watching poker newbies haven’t grasped is the enormous difference between tournament poker — particularly no-limit, short-handed games of five players or fewer — and full ten-player limit hold’em cash games. After all, when the blinds represent a fairly significant part of each player’s equity in a tournament, you just can’t sit around and wait for a big-pocket pair or Big Slick (ace-king) before firing some chips at the pot. If you wait, you’ll bleed to death. Poker newbies usually don’t realize that limit poker, played as a cash game with tiny blinds at a full table, requires enormous patience waiting for good hands. Short-handed tournament poker — where the blinds become astronomical and too much patience is a terminal disease — requires a lot more risk-taking. This is the end of the spectrum where the selection-aggression quotient leans heavily toward aggressive play. On TV, any hand with an ace in it, or any pair in hand, is raised most of the time. In a full table, low-limit cash game at your neighborhood card room, it takes a lot more than that. But those seduced by poker on TV haven’t grasped that point — and won’t if watching television is their only means of learning the game. THE

Kaizen OF POKER

47

IN LONG TOURNAMENTS, IT’S SURVIVAL EARLY, AGGRESSION LATER In tournaments, aggression very gradually increases over the course of the event. It’s sort of like revving up a car engine, except it’s done over a much longer period of time. In really long events, such as the $10,000 no-limit hold’em tournament at the World Series of Poker — which takes more than a week to complete — the experts have one main goal for the first few days: survive. (I wouldn’t say this is exactly true. Their second goal is to accumulate chips, using selective aggression.) They aren’t revving up their aggression engines early at all, and they’re not out to take every risk possible in hopes of gathering all the chips they might win. They merely want to survive the first few days and put themselves into position to compete for all the marbles later in the week. They’ve learned that you can’t win a tournament in the early stages. You can lose it, but it can’t be won until the end stages. Another common mistake made by those who have learned poker only by watching short-handed final tables of tournaments on TV is overvaluing small and medium pairs in cash games. When the blinds come around with regularity because there are only five players at the table — and they’re so high that one just can’t outwait them in the hopes of finding a big hand — small and medium pairs have to be played strongly. If you wake up with a pair of eights, or even a pair of sixes in a shorthanded tournament, it’s a raising hand, surely. But when you’re at a full table in a cash game, particularly at lower limits, where almost everyone will call regardless of what you do, those small and medium pocket pairs will probably be looking at overcards on the flop. And at least one of your opponents will likely have or flop a better hand than yours. In a full game, smaller pairs need to flop a set to retain their value. In a short-handed tournament, a big raise from a pocket pair stands a good chance of forcing your opponents to fold. If, perchance, you’re called by someone with a hand like A-K or A-Q, what the heck, you’re a small favorite anyway as long as you’re up against a lone opponent. 48 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

When you’re short-handed in a tournament, you can raise with a pretty dicey hand, as long as no one else has entered the pot. And once you raise, your opponents will need fairly strong hands to risk what amounts to a significant portion of their tournament equity to call. There’s a big chasm between raising hands and calling hands in tournaments, particularly when those raises represent a major chunk of your change. In a nine-handed cash game, where you can buy more chips any time you go broke on a hand, you’ll find players who call with hands they wouldn’t dream of playing if they were skilled tournament pros and were short-handed at the final table. These aren’t the only errors made by newbies who have learned their poker simply by watching it on TV, but they are among the most egregious. You’ll find others, too. These two forms of poker are as different as arena football from the NFL and miniature golf is from the PGA tour. And when one mimics the style of game that’s tailored to one medium but not the other, the results can be catastrophic. As long as new players keep walking into casinos, however, there’s a winning opportunity for skilled players. And when those newbies are convinced the kind of chops they’ve seen on TV will play just as well in an entirely different game environment, well, you really can’t ask for more than that, can you?

CAN YOU LEARN FROM JOE? My new student, Joe, said: “I did not limp, I did not call. I played aggressively from position; for example, I was on the button with jackqueen and raised $15 to the limpers. These were $50 pots before the flop, and I had control of the betting. I went all in twice, once for $60 and once for $80 after the flop, and got one caller with suited 9-7 and another with K-T, and they both made their flushes. I was not playing a lot of hands. Folded and folded. No one at the table could believe how I went down with my play, including the two who made the flushes.” THE

Kaizen OF POKER

49

What do you think of Joe’s story? Here is how I responded, “OK, Joe, maybe you didn’t play too many hands today, but you do in general. And any time you are all in, you are vulnerable — especially with a short stack against gamblers. I can go all day and never be all in, and you were all in three times. I’m not saying you necessarily played badly in this session, just that your starting hand range is way too big. Every single time I come over to your table, you are in a hand. Bad beats can almost always be traced to starting hand selection. When you come to my table, I am almost never in a hand.” Maybe in this game it is possible to know too much. You can go on a nice winning streak playing by the book, and then you start trying all kinds of tricks, and start losing. There is probably an arc through which many players progress. They start off playing by the book and winning; then they loosen up and win some more; then they loosen up too much and start losing. “Joe,” said I, “I walked over to your table recently, and you were in the blind with black cards Q-9. The flop had a queen, but all of the cards on the flop were red (two diamonds). You made a bet of $20 with your queens, and got called by two players. You have to put one or both of those players on diamonds or a diamond draw. When the turn was a diamond, you bet again! The two players were looking at each other as if you weren’t there. They had both made their flushes. You should have saved your money out of position (in early betting position). When you see a flop with flush possibilities and two callers, give it up. Only someone with that suit will win that hand — even if they are bluffing.” I continued: “But you came over to my table and told me less than 20 minutes later that you were winning. I was happy to hear that you had renewed discipline, but you told me that you now had a tight image.” “Joe, you may have played subsequent hands well and with discipline, but there is no way you had a tight image at that table after showing you had bet into a red flush with black cards. Besides, it takes at least an hour to really develop that tight image. You have to actually play super tightly for a very long time to get that image. But also, when you 50 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

play with the same people, there is no such thing as a tight image. The person with the tight image is the lady at the other end of the table who hasn’t placed a bet since 1952.” I’m happy to report that today Joe and I are both on a long winning streak.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #7: I will fold enough (optimally).

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

51

eight. DID YOU

PICK THE RIGHT HANDS TO PLAY?

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

Poker ultimately comes down to hands. It’s always about hands, when all is said and done. Turn over the better hand, and you’re the winner. Win more money on your good hands, while possessing sufficient discipline to lose less with your weaker hands, and you’ll walk away a big winner in the long run. Deciding if you’re going to see the flop with your first two cards is probably the most important decision you’ll make playing hold’em. Learning what to do with your first two cards is not all that difficult. After all, there are only 169 two-card starting combinations, and you certainly shouldn’t play all of them.

52

TIP: Don’t play for the bad beat or high hand. Play big

cards and pairs.

WHAT MAKES POKER A GAME YOU CAN BEAT? The fact that the odds are always shifting in poker, and that you don’t have to play a hand to its conclusion just because you called a bet or two on earlier rounds, is what enables good players to win at poker. You don’t have this option in casino table games. Never count on being able to beat craps, roulette, baccarat, and other such games, where the odds are fixed and set to favor the house. When playing casino table games, you make a bet, and for the most part that bet is still working until the particular confrontation you’ve wagered on has ended. And even if there is a surrender option, guess who figures to get the best of this deal, you or the house? In poker, you have the ability to opt in and opt out. It’s often the ability and willingness to fold your tent and steal away into the night — saved money clutched tightly in your hands — that provides the resources allowing you to play another hand when you have the best of it.

WINNING MONEY IS IMPORTANT; WINNING POTS ISN’T

Remember, the objective of poker is to win money, not to win pots. If you want to win the most pots, that’s easy. Just play every hand until the bitter end or until you can see you’re beaten on board, and you’ll win every pot it was possible for you to win. It’s a guarantee that by evening’s end, you’ll be the one who won the most pots. But unless you were having an incredible run of cards, you’re also the one most likely to have gone broke.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

53

The person doing the most folding plays a much different style of poker than the one trying to win the most pots. The former is selective and aggressive. The latter may be aggressive or passive, but he’s anything but selective. Winning poker requires combining selectivity with aggression, all in the right proportion. The proper mix depends on the game, your opponents, how well they play, whether they are too passive or too aggressive, and how they view your playing style. A lot of what goes into establishing the right proportion is more an art than a recipe, but much of it can be learned.

{zyx

HAND CHARACTERISTICS Each combination has certain unique characteristics that render your two starting cards either more or less playable. There are five basic hand categories: pairs, connected cards, gapped cards, suited connectors, or suited gapped cards. Unless they’re paired, your cards will either be suited or unsuited. Both suited and unsuited cards can be connected (adjacent to one another) or gapped. Examples of connectors are J-T, 5-4, and 4-3. Unconnected cards might be one-, two-, three-gapped, or more, and would include holdings such as: Q-T, 8-5, 6-2, or 7-2. The size of the gap is important because of straights. Although you can make a straight with one-, two-, or three-gapped cards, the smaller the gap, the easier it is to make a straight — with a few significant exceptions. If you are dealt a three-gapped hand such as T-6, the only three cards that will allow you to build a straight are 9-8-7. But if you were dealt T-9, a straight can be made with K-Q-J, Q-J-8, J-8-7, and 8-7-6. The only exceptions to this rule occur at both ends of the card-rank spectrum.

54 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

A-K, for example, makes only one straight. Because there are no cards higher in rank than an ace, Q-J-T are the only three ranks of cards that will complete a straight with A-K. A-2 is in the same boat. Only 5-4-3 makes a bottom straight. Although both A-K and A-2 are connectors, and not gapped, each of them can only make one straight. In similar fashion, K-Q and 3-2 are also constrained and each of these hands can only make a straight with A-J-T and J-T-9, or A-4-5 or 6-5-4, respectively. Q-J and 4-3 are also limited, and each of these combinations can make three straights. Q-J needs A-K-T, K-T-9, or T-9-8, while 4-3 is similar. All other connectors can make straights four ways, which is a big advantage over gapped cards.

GUIDELINES FOR PLAYING YOUR HANDS Here are three simple guidelines to inform your decision about whether to play your first two cards. •

Cards that are neither suited nor paired, unconnected, and four-gapped or larger should never be played under normal circumstances.

•

Play few hands in early position.

•

Suited cards are more valuable than unsuited cards of equal rank.

Because acting later in a hand is more advantageous than acting early, you can afford to see the flop with weaker hands in late position. In fact, if you’re last to act, you’ll have the advantage of seeing how each of your opponents acts on the current round of betting. That’s important because some starting hands play better against a large

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

55

number of opponents, while others play better heads-up. Late position also tells you who is representing what, and the later you act, the more information you’ll have at your disposal.

HANDS YOU CAN PLAY ANYTIME Aces: When you’re dealt a pair of aces, no one has a stronger hand than you. If someone bets, go ahead and raise. If there’s a bet and a raise in front of you, feel free to re-raise. There’s not a hand out there right now that’s better than yours. Kings: Kings are a favorite against any hand except a pair of aces, and as long as an ace doesn’t flop, you are probably still in the lead. With kings, as well as with queens and jacks, flop awareness is critical. Many hold’em players, especially in fixed-limit games, will call with any ace, no matter how weak the side card is that accompanies it. Whoever does this should be concerned any time an ace hits the board. Queens and Jacks: A pair of queens or jacks is probably the best hand before the flop. But if bigger cards appear on the flop, you’re in jeopardy. Because queens or jacks are much more vulnerable than aces and kings, defense is important. If you can narrow the field, you’re better off. Raise or re-raise when it’s your turn to act. If you can eliminate any opponent holding an ace or a king with a weak kicker, you significantly increase your chance of winning. Middle Pairs — Tens, Nines, Eights, Sevens: Even with a pair of tens, which is the best of these holdings, 16 cards can give one of your opponents a higher pair. It’s more likely than not that at least one overcard (a card higher than yours) will appear on the flop. The fewer adversaries you go up against with these hands, the better off you are. You can play these if you can get to see the flop cheaply, or if you have raised 56 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

and forced out most of your opponents. Obviously, if there’s a pre-flop raising war going on, you have to dump those middle pairs.

OTHER HANDS PLAYABLE IN EARLY POSITION Many players treat big-suited connected cards, such as A-K, A-Q, and K-Q, as if they were aces or kings. But there’s a big difference. A pocket pair has immediate value. With connectors, you hope to make a hand, and all you have now is potential, which isn’t always realized. Even when you begin with a hand as strong as A-K, you’ll flop an ace or a king only about one-third of the time. If you keep this in mind, you shouldn’t have any trouble folding hands like these when warranted. That’s a big edge over those opponents who rarely fold these hands, regardless of the flop and the subsequent betting action. Flush potential is the difference between big-suited and unsuited connectors. While you won’t make a flush that often, flopping a flush draw, which happens approximately 10 percent of the time, keeps you in the hunt and allows you to continue contesting the pot. Bluffs and semibluffs notwithstanding, you may not make your flush, but you might back into a top pair with top kicker and win the pot that way. If you flop a four-flush and catch an ace or a king instead of your flush card on the turn, you’ll have top pair plus the added equity of a live flush draw. Part of the value of suited connectors is that they often allow you to remain in the pot and win by means other than completing your primary draw.

PLAYABLE HANDS IN MIDDLE AND LATE POSITION You can add a pair of sixes and a pair of fives to your playable repertoire in middle position. But with small and middling pairs, your objective is always the same: get in cheaply and either flop a set or get out. Whenever your opponents routinely play any suited ace (an ace plus THE

Kaizen OF POKER

57

a card of the same suit), you can play A-9 suited through A-6 suited, and your hand will usually be the best ace if no one raised before the flop, since most players in games like these will raise with an A-T suited or better. But suited A-8, A-7, and A-6 are still dangerous hands, even in middle position, and you want to avoid flopping an ace and finding yourself outkicked. Unsuited cards like K-T, Q-J, Q-T, J-T can also be played for one bet only. You should never, however, cold-call a raise with hands like these. King-ten is especially dangerous in a raised pot when a king flops. Because so many players raise with hands like A-K, K-Q, and often K-J, if you call with K-T, you’ll have no idea whether yours is the best hand.

HANDS YOU CAN PLAY IN LATE POSITION Late position offers you the advantage of seeing how most of your opponents played their hands. If someone raised, you can fold any hand you’d play only in unraised pots. You also have the advantage of knowing with certainty whether you are taking the flop with a large or small group of opponents. Some hands, like smaller-suited connectors, can only be profitably played in unraised pots with a large number of opponents. Others, like pairs, play better when you can narrow your opponents to a few. If this concept is true for fixed-limit games, it is even truer for potand no-limit games. The number of opponents bears significantly on the implied odds you will receive if you play a marginal hand, but are fortunate enough to catch a miraculous flop Acting last is advantageous because of the knowledge at your disposal. When you act late, or in last position, you never have to wonder if you’ll be raised, or guess at the number of opponents who will be taking the flop with you. In late position, you have this information at your disposal, and that’s a big edge. You can also play any pair, provided the pot has not been raised before it’s your turn to act. Go ahead and play deuces, treys (threes), 58 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

and fours as long as you can do so for one bet. While there’s no chance you’ll have top pair on the flop, you’re hoping to flop a set or an openended straight draw. You might even raise with a small pair if you have just one caller. Raising might cause the blinds to fold, and even if the flop misses you but an ace or a king flops, you can come out betting to represent a hand, just the same as if you raised with A-K and the flop fit your hand like a glove. You can do the same thing with any suited ace. While you’d love to flop a flush with this hand, you’ll have to play carefully if an ace appears. Other connectors, suited or not, can be played on the cheap whenever you’ve got lots of opponents who will presumably pay you off when you make a big hand Selectivity is the key to successful play. Keep yourself in situations offering favorable pot odds. When you’re in a favorable situation, be aggressive. Bet to get more money in the pot when you have a big hand, or to eliminate competition when you’re holding the kind of hand that plays best against fewer opponents.

ACE-NINE AND SIMILAR TRASH In games with better players, such as mid-limit games of $10/$20 and up, A-9 and below is a money loser. As a result, most pros also eschew ace-little. Just because you occasionally win with a horrible hand, and just because you see other people win with horrible cards, don’t fall for this. You will make far more over the long term by almost never playing hands that you know are horrible. If this seems at odds with the advice on the past few pages, it’s all a function of game texture. Some hands are money winners in one style of game, but money losers in others. With practice, you’ll develop a feel for those hands that can be added to, or must be subtracted from, your playing repertoire. Bringing in hands and eliminating others depending on game texture is one of the hallmarks of a good professional player. THE

Kaizen OF POKER

59

One reason not to play little cards — that is, cards below a 10 — is that even when you flop two pairs or a straight, they often don’t hold up to the river. Some of the more common confrontations you see all the time in hold’em games are shown below. One reason to avoid playing small cards most of the time is to avoid finding yourself on the longshot end of these confrontations.

ONE PAIR AND OVERCARDS When the announcer says, “It’s a race,” he’s talking about the kind of showdown commonly found in no-limit tournaments when one player has a pair and his opponent has two bigger cards. Ace-king versus a pair of jacks is an example of just this sort of race. The pair is about a 55 percent to 45 percent favorite, so it’s not really a neck-and-neck race. In fact, in a presidential election, this kind of victory would be considered a landslide. But in poker, it’s a race. Although the pair is favored, the two big cards are only a 1.2-to-1 dog, and they win enough of the time that it’s a dicey situation for both participants. And what makes it dicey is that when you’re all in, your tournament life is predicated on something that, at 1.2-to-1, is a little closer than you’d like. When you have to risk your tournament life, you’d prefer to be at least a 2-to-1 favorite. “Form is more important than pace.” — taro gold

HIGH PAIR AND LOW PAIR A bigger pair is more than an 80 percent favorite to win, or about a 4-to-1 favorite over a lower pair. These numbers can vary a bit, depending on the relationship between the pairs and their suits. If you have K{Kz

60 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

and your opponent has Q{Qz, you are a bigger favorite than you would be if your opponent’s pair of queens were both of different suits than your kings. When your cards are the same suit as your opponent’s, he can never win by making a flush. If there’s a flush, you’ll win because you’ll have the bigger one. Having your pair the same suit as your opponent’s smaller pair adds about 1.5 percent to your edge. It’s not much, but every little bit helps.

ONE PAIR AND TWO LOWER CARDS This is a much more comfortable situation for the pair than when he’s up against two bigger cards. Against two smaller cards, the pair is approximately a 5-to-1 favorite, and the two lower cards, which will need to make at least two pair to win, are a decided long shot.

ONE PAIR AND ONE UP, ONE DOWN What happens when your opponent has one card that’s bigger and one that’s smaller than your pair? The pair has approximately a 70 percent chance of winning. You’re really trying to duck the chance that your opponent pairs his overcard, which is really what’s needed for him to win. He can also win by catching two of his smaller cards or making a straight, but those chances are scant. Your pair eliminates two of the cards he’ll need to complete his straight, and making trips with one smaller card is a long shot, too. Just pairing his smaller card does your opponent no good. To win, he’ll usually need to pair his overcard, and if he does, you still have a chance — although it’s a long shot — to re- draw on him.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

61

TWO HIGHER CARDS AND TWO LOWER CARDS Two higher cards are favored over two lower ones, but not by as much as you might think. They’re about a 5-to-3 favorite — almost 2-to-1, but not quite. When you’re looking at A-K versus 6-5, you’d think that a hand as pretty as Big Slick should be a prohibitive favorite. But it usually boils down to the fact the hand making a pair becomes the winner. If your pair is adjacent to your opponent’s lower pair, such as kings versus queens as opposed to kings versus eights, your edge increases slightly. Adjacency reduces the number of straights a lower pair might make.

SMALL PAIRS AND SMALLISH CONNECTORS Playing small pocket pairs properly can be difficult, and what to do when you’re dealt smallish connectors is not a walk in the park either. Small pairs, and we’re talking about a pair of sevens or lower, can be thought of as drawing hands much of the time, though there are exceptions to this guideline. And if you think of them that way, you shouldn’t go too far wrong. After all, a big pair, like aces, kings, or queens, frequently wins without improving. They’re that good. But a small pair usually needs help. And other than sticking its nose in the midst of a 7-6-4 flop and getting lucky on the turn or river, a pair of fives can only improve by flopping a set. The nice thing about flopping a set is that it will cost your opponent some chips by the time he comes to grips with the possibility that you’re holding three-of-a-kind. There’s not much he’s going to be able to do about it either. The other side of this coin is the odds against flopping a set when you’re dealt a pocket pair are 7.5-to-1, which means it’s not going to happen all that often, and that’s another reason why big pocket pairs are so much more desirable than their smallish cousins.

62 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

KEEP THE COST LOW WHEN DRAWING TO A SMALL PAIR When you have a hand that’s a long shot — and drawing to improve a small pair against two or more opponents certainly falls into that category — keep the cost as low as possible. From a strategic perspective, you’re a lot better off playing a small pair for one bet than cold-calling two bets in a raised pot. The message is clear: a raise is a statement that your opponent holds a big hand. While it might be nothing more than two big cards, it may contain a pair bigger than your pair of fives, which makes it a prohibitive favorite. But when you act in late position, you have an opportunity to see whether any of your opponents have raised before it’s your turn to decide what to do with your cards. If the price is right, especially if there are a few callers to increase your implied odds, you can see the flop. If you get lucky and hit your set, you’re in good shape. If the flop misses you and the eyes of face cards are staring up at you, just toss your hand away if anyone bets. Against a relatively large field, chances are pretty good that flop will help someone, and if that someone isn’t you, your unimproved pair of fives is now an also-ran.

WHEN IS A SMALL PAIR A DRAWING HAND AND WHEN IS IT NOT? But if no one has called the blinds when it’s your turn to act, you can raise from late position, because your pair of fives figures to be the favorite against whatever random cards the two blinds might hold. Do you see what’s happening here? Against a scattering of opponents who hold good enough hands to voluntarily commit money to the pot, your pair of fives is really drawing to improve. Against one or two opponents who hold random cards in their hands and have to post a blind bet, like it or not, you probably have the best hand. You ought to raise with it, in hopes of winning the confrontation right there or

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

63

stealing the pot by betting regardless of whether the flop was any help to you or not. And what about connectors? Well, they’re drawing hands under any circumstances, and in a heads-up situation, even A-K is a slight underdog to any pocket pair. But as a general rule, everyone raises with big connectors like A-K, and that turns out to be a pretty good idea. An ace or a king will flop when you’re holding Big Slick roughly one-third of the time. When it does, it guarantees that Big Slick has flopped top pair with the very best kicker, and that’s a moneymaking hand in most hold’em games. Even if you miss the flop completely, and your raise was only called by the big blind — after all, he’s already in for one bet, so he’s getting a “discount” to call you — you might have the best hand even if you don’t improve.

WHY SMALLISH CONNECTORS ARE SO VULNERABLE But we’re talking smallish connectors here, not Big Slick. If you hold 9-8 suited, you’ll flop a nine or an eight about one-third of the time. But unlike Big Slick, hitting the flop with 9-8 doesn’t guarantee much of anything. For starters, you may not flop the highest pair, particularly if bigger cards appear. Even when you flop the top pair, your hand is vulnerable to the same pair with a bigger kicker. Actually, vulnerable isn’t a strong enough word. Your hand is dominated by the same pair with a bigger kicker. Unless you can make a straight or flush on the turn or the river, you are drawing in hopes of pairing your kicker, and there are only three cards of that rank unaccounted for in the deck. With smallish connectors, you’re hoping the flop hits you twice — three times would be even better — before you feel comfortable with your hand. That means you’re looking for a four-flush, four to a straight, trips, or two pair, and these are all long shots.

64 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

REQUIREMENTS FOR PLAYING SMALL PAIRS AND SMALLISH CONNECTORS What are the strategic implications of looking for a long shot in this situation? You will usually play smallish connectors much the way you’d play a small pair. You want a relatively large number of opponents who will pay you off when you get lucky, and because your hand is a long shot, you need to play it for one bet only. The only way to guarantee such conditions is to play hands like these from late position (near last or last to act). If you play them early, you run the risk of someone raising behind you. And even if there is no raise, you may not get the number of customers you need to justify your investment. Unlike a small pocket pair, smallish-suited connectors probably won’t be favored over two random blind hands, and if you are the first player to enter the pot with hands like these, you are bluffing; you’re not betting for value, as you would be with a small pocket pair against the blinds. With hands like these, you’re drawing to improve, and if you don’t get any help on the flop, you stand a good chance of having to release your hand. So as long as you’re playing a hand that needs to improve, try making it as inexpensive for yourself as possible. When you do play small pairs and smallish connectors, play ’em late, and on the cheap. It’s worth noting that these kinds of hands can sometimes be more valuable in no-limit and pot-limit games. While the mathematical parameters surrounding drawing hands won’t change from game to game, the pot odds just might. When betting can escalate exponentially, as it can in these games, the implied odds that accrue when you hit your hand and no one realizes it mean you don’t have to win many of these confrontations to make them profitable in the long run. “Those who can find joy in even the most difficult times will know life without regret.” — taro gold

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

65

BE CAUTIOUS WITH SMALL-GAPPED CONNECTORS Calling with hands that build second or third pair, or long-shot holdings such as small-gapped connectors, frequently puts you on the road to ruin. When you do win with these hands, no one will suspect you have such beauties in your hand. But in limit hold’em, they don’t win enough money to provide a long-term positive expected value. Save those hands for no-limit games, where you can see the flop for one bet with lots of opponents in the pot, and you’re getting nearly infinite implied odds. If you can manage your impulses, so that you can release these hands whenever they don’t flop an absolutely miraculous hand for you — which will be the vast majority of the time — then you can play them. But if you’re losing too frequently at the river, just try backing up. You’ll probably find your real error occurred a lot earlier in the game.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #8: I will pick the right hands to play.

66 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

nine. DID YOU STAY AWARE OF THE RULES, SUCH AS PROTECTING YOUR HAND?

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

Dealers are always telling you to put away your cell phone or risk losing your chance to win the bad beat jackpot, but here is a rule that is almost never enforced! And it is flagrantly violated. And as I am lucky enough to have a soapbox, I am going to take a stand.

PROTECT YOUR HAND What’s the issue? Bad players do not protect their hands. Let me start by saying I have strong feelings about this issue. At many tournaments, when a few rules are highlighted just before the tournament begins, the announcer will say that players must “protect 67

their hands,” so that if they are in the 1 or 10 seats and the dealer inadvertently scoops up their cards, they will have no recourse. And so they are advised to put a card protector on their cards to keep this very rare event from happening. C’mon! This is true, but there are a million other rules that are not announced before a tournament starts. I am certain the first person who advised tournament directors to announce the “protect your hand” rule before a tournament had the alternate meaning of “protect your hand” in mind! What should be emphasized before every tournament is that, in order to keep the tournament fair, players have the responsibility to keep other players from seeing their cards! This means you should carefully cup your hands over your cards when looking at them so that players on both sides can’t see them and gain an advantage over you and the table. It means that when you muck your cards, you should do so “low and slow,” toward the dealer, so the end isn’t raised up, allowing players across the table to have a peek. I know a professional player who carefully chooses to play in cash games where there are several seniors who are very careless about mucking their cards. He chooses seats across from such players and gets to see at least two extra cards during each hand, which gives him a solid advantage. If no one at his table is revealing cards, he moves to another table. Lots of older players got in the habit of shuffling their cards when they were playing stud regularly. This kept others from knowing if they already had the goods or successfully rivered a draw. Picking cards up off the table and shuffling them has no business at a hold’em table. Dealers aren’t instructed to watch for players who carelessly reveal their hands and so they don’t monitor this. It makes tournaments in particular very unfair as players are stuck at the tables and seats to which they are assigned. What’s your goal? Be a player who protects your hand! Use two hands in a cup-like fashion to peek at your hole cards. When you muck, do not lift the cards off the table so that players across from you can see the mucked cards. Do not show your cards to your 68 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

neighbor on purpose or by accident. Do not lift up your cards to look at them before you muck. Do not shuffle your cards off the table while you are waiting for your turn to act. When you muck, send the cards flat on the table low and slow toward the dealer. If someone is revealing cards by accident or on purpose, politely try to correct the situation. Of course, if the situation can’t be corrected, then take advantage whenever you can of seeing the additional cards. If you get to see two extra cards in a round, you will definitely find an opportunity to use that knowledge to prevail. If you alone see that someone is mucking a jack and the flop has two jacks, you should be able to pretend that you have the jack. It’s true that there is still another jack out there, but you should be able to determine fairly easily if that is the case and then get away. Tournament directors, if you want to point out that players in the 1 and 10 seats are responsible for making sure their hands don’t get mucked, and are vulnerable to dealers scooping them up, fine, but please also mention the other far more important issue concerning the need to protect hands from view in order to keep the tournament fair. And dealers, please keep in mind that this concept is important in cash games, too, and should be enforced and monitored religiously. “It is better to see one time than to hear one hundred times.” — mongolian proverb

Note: Another meaning of “protecting your hand” has nothing to do with keeping your cards from flashing. In terms of betting, it means making an early bet big enough to keep other players from having odds to draw to hands that will beat you. Other important rules to know are one player to a hand, not to speak about the flop, English only at the table, not to discuss hands while there are three or more players with cards, not to act out of turn, local house rules, third man walking, betting order, showing order, not to muck when you can just check, straddling rules, single chip rule, promotion rules, such as what qualifies for THE

Kaizen OF POKER

69

a jackpot or special payout, string betting, seat change buttons, and so on. If you know the rules, they will work in your favor. Not knowing them can cost you money and your image.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #9: I will stay aware of

the rules, such as protecting my hand.

70 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

ten. WERE YOU

AWARE OF THE GAP CONCEPT? Or did you call raises with A-Q, Q-T, A-7, or 2-3? If so, how did that work out for you?

Playing well means you did not. Needing improvement means you did.

THE GAP CONCEPT The gap refers to the huge difference between a hand you would call a raise with and one with which you would raise. (Note: A-Q, Q-T, A-7, and 2-3 are not hands with which you should call raises.) You need a much bigger hand to call a raise than to do the raising. The gap between hands that are worth betting or raising and those that can call a bet or a raise provides fertile ground for bluff bets and raises. Every top tournament player knows about “the gap,” as poker expert David Sklansky has called it, and top professionals use it to exploit less skilled players at every opportunity. You can be sitting there with A-T suited, all set to raise, when

71

someone raises before you, and then you throw it away (instamuck). In poker, you have to be able to turn on a dime.

MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL: SHOULD I CALL? SHOULD I CALL?

Calling, in fact, is often the worst of the three alternatives of folding, raising, or calling. After all, if you’ve got a winning low hand, but it’s one that looks like it might be a high hand, too — perhaps your board is scary enough to suggest a straight or flush, but all you really have is a good low with one pair — you ought to be raising. Far too many players call as their default action. Instead, they ought to think first of folding or raising, and call as a last resort rather than a first option.

{zyx

PLANNING AHEAD Any time you’re involved in a pot that is raised before the flop, remember, it’s going to get expensive. Even if the pre-flop raiser flops nothing, he’s going to posture raise, re-raise, and bet. You’re going to have to flop big or fold.

DOMINATION One of the recurring issues discussed on Internet poker forums, and by players who belong to poker study groups, is the concept of dominated 72 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

hands. Entire books on poker strategy have been written on the concept. Here’s how it works. If I’m holding A-T, and you have A-K, my hand is dominated. Miraculous straights and flushes that might accrue to A-T notwithstanding, I have three outs and three outs only to win this pot. And while there are a few more hands that will enable me to split the pot — a rainbow coalition of K-Q-J-T might hit the board, and our straights will propel us to a split pot — that’s beside the point. My objective is to win, not play a lesser hand in hopes of getting my money back courtesy of a really miraculous fall of cards.

DOMINATED HANDS ARE BIG LONG SHOTS Dominated hands, by definition, have three outs. Except for those aforementioned miraculous straights and flushes, and a few oddball split pots, only three cards will enable a dominated hand to win the pot. The hand that’s doing the dominating owns the rest of the deck! Regardless of whether opponents seem to make three-outers (turn or river one of only three cards in the deck that will give them the winning hand) with regularity, no poker player wants a foot on his throat with only three cards enabling escape. Sometimes it’s not even as good as that. If the dominating hand is fortunate enough to make two pair, then for all intents and purposes you’re drawing dead. Imagine that. You pair your kicker on the turn or river and bet, or even raise, thinking yours is the best hand. But your hand is still dominated; and what’s worse is your two pair will probably result in a bigger loss. Dominated hands are trouble. And when you’ve got trouble, it’s time to ask yourself, “What can I do about it?” and “How can I avoid getting in situations like this in the first place?” “Your destiny is ultimately a matter of choice, not chance.” — taro gold

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

73

TROUBLE HANDS ARE FREQUENTLY DOMINATED Many poker authors who write about Texas hold’em have gone to great lengths to discuss what they euphemistically call trouble hands. After all, lots of hands fall into this category. In early position, hands like A-J, A-T, K-J, K-T, and Q-J are classic trouble hands. “Call with hands like these in an early position,” you’re invariably admonished, “and you’re in big trouble if an opponent raises.” After all, conventional wisdom holds that most of your opponents will raise most of the time with hands that are better than those. The person doing the raising is much more likely to have a hand like A-A, K-K, A-K, or A-Q than a trouble hand. That’s the “book” move. While that’s mostly true, the fact remains that many of your opponents will never have read any books, and they won’t play by them if they have. Some players have raising requirements that are far less stringent than others. Real maniacs often have no raising requirements at all; they’re driven by nothing more substantial than ego and a whim. Some players will raise with any suited ace in any position, hands like K-J, K-T, Q-J, J-T, and any pair of sixes or higher. Others — there aren’t too many players like this, but there are a few — will raise with T-7 offsuit just because they have a hunch. When you are playing against an opponent who raises with a very broad spectrum of hands, you won’t necessarily be dominated if you hold an otherwise troublesome hand like A-J. In fact, the raiser might be the one who is dominated. While he may think otherwise, it just might be your foot that’s firmly planted on his throat. There’s no tactical edge more important than knowing your opponents. A hand like A-J, which should be released in the face of a raise from a sound player, might be a hand to re-raise with against others.

74 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

YOU’LL WIN THE MINIMUM BUT LOSE THE MAXIMUM WITH TROUBLE HANDS Nevertheless, when you’re holding a trouble hand, you’ll seldom be sure whether you’re in the lead or not. Because you have to consider that your hand might be dominated, you’re apt to play passively by checking and calling rather than betting and raising. Even when you win these confrontations, caution minimizes the amount of your win. Your opponent — who seized the initiative with aggressive play — will maximize his or her wins. File that thought away, and don’t lose touch with it. It’s another example of why selective and aggressive play is a major factor underlying winning poker. It’s also an example of the “know your opponents” line of reasoning. You know the mantra: strategy often depends on the situation, and a hand that’s playable against John might not be playable against Mary. When you’re in early position, you won’t know which of your opponents might come out firing. It could be Mary, the gal who never raises unless she holds a premium hand. But it might also be John, the maniac always on tilt who is just as likely to come after you with 7-6 or K-2 as he is with any other, more legitimate holding.

DUCKING TROUBLE HANDS Here’s how to deal with the unenviable consequences of finding your hand dominated by an opponent who also has the advantage of acting last, severely restricting the hands you play from early position. While face cards are pretty, they’re not equally desirable. A hand like Q-J in early position — or even in middle position in an aggressive game — flings the door to domination wide open. If you don’t play hands that can get you in trouble, you won’t find yourself staring up at three-outers and the improbable odds you’ll have

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

75

to overcome to win the pot. Although you cannot avoid dominated hands with 100 percent certainty — unless you refrain from playing all hands, save a pair of aces — it’s your first decision that matters most. If you are nimble enough to avoid getting yourself into this kind of trap in the first place, and both deft and sufficiently disciplined to extricate yourself from its clutches at the earliest hint of trouble, you’ll find yourself doing just about anything to minimize the adverse impact of being dominated whenever you hold a troublesome hand. This means that much of poker is about developing your senses to the point where you’re able to realize when you’ve had the best of it. Exercise the sorely needed self-discipline required to release hands when you’re staring up a long and lonely hill. If you can master this — and the skill required to execute this strategy is a lot tougher than any words I have used to describe it — the tactical aspects become pretty simple. This is particularly true when you’re playing limit poker. Get your money into action when you have the best of it, and use your discipline to fold those dominated three-outers when you don’t.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #10: I will remain aware of the gap

concept. I will not call raises with A-Q, Q-T, A-7, or 2-3.

76 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

eleven. DID YOU PLAY WITH DISCIPLINE?

“I like how Webster defines the word patience. He defines it as suffering in place.” — kenna james

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

DESIRE AND DISCIPLINE Desire and discipline are two critically important factors necessary to succeed at professional poker. If you decide to specialize in cash games for a living, and are a winning player, you’ll eventually establish an average amount you can expect to win for each hour you put in at the tables. It’s like a baseball player’s batting average. He might hit .300, but that doesn’t mean he’ll get three hits for each and every 10 times he strides to the plate. He’ll have protracted slumps that can last for a month or longer at a time while, on other occasions, every time he puts the bat on the ball, it will fall in for a base hit.

77

When you think of it that way, it makes poker’s ups and downs a bit easier to take, especially when you’ve been keeping good records and know that any bad streak is just a blip in the data stream, and that you just need to maintain your batting average over the course of the year. Another way to view professional poker is to think of it as a job, and know that the more hours you put in, the more you can expect to earn. It’s like being a salesperson who knows his commission figures will increase if he puts more time in on the job. All of this requires discipline, and discipline is as critical to a poker player as it is to a baseball player trying to hit a big-league curveball. Without it, all the skill in the world will not be sufficient. All it takes is a short period of tilt time for an otherwise good poker player to blow back money he spent hours, days, or even weeks winning. You just can’t afford to allow your discipline to take a day off when you’re a working professional poker player. The price you pay if you do can be enormous. Some pros are more skilled and more disciplined than others, and they use their attributes to earn a great deal of money. Others earn very little, and while they are professional poker players, they’re more subsistence pros than anything else. For some, it’s frustrating. An inability to get their winnings up and over the hump to the point where playing poker professionally provides them with the lifestyle they seek eventually drives them out of the game and back into a more mainstream occupation.

DRAWING HANDS If you’re drawing, draw only to the nuts. The worst feeling is to hit your flush and then lose to a higher flush. And be especially careful when drawing to straights. It is no secret why they call the bottom end of a straight the idiot end. You will feel like an idiot if the 10 gives you a straight to the king while giving your opponent a straight to the ace.

78 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

THE REWARDS OF BEING FLEXIBLE You’ll often be dealt a hand that you are preparing to raise with, only to have an opponent snatch the rug right out from under your feet by raising before the action gets around to you. Most of the time, this is no longer even a calling hand, and it should wind up in the muck. When the initiative is filched from right under their noses, many players become irritated. You see it all the time, an angry slam-down of a hand like A-T because a player raised before they could act. These players are wearing their emotions inside out. Instead of being upset, they ought to be thankful. Their opponent’s raise probably saved them money, and they should be relieved, not angry. After all, money saved is just as spendable as money won, and any time you can get a free pass out of a pot, knowing your hand is probably a long shot that won’t be offset by the pot odds, you should be a happy camper. When faced with a raise, the hand you’re holding quickly changes categories. Most likely it becomes either a folding hand or one you should re-raise with; it’s seldom a calling hand. If you’re in the cutoff seat — the seat that acts immediately before the button — or on the button, and someone raises before it’s your turn to act, you should throw away hands like A-J or A-T. Do this even if you would have raised with those same hands if no one had entered the pot before the action reached you. On the other hand, if you’re holding a big pair or A-K, you should make it three bets in hopes of playing heads-up against the initial raiser. When that happens, you have a big advantage going into the flop. Not only did you get the last raise in, you also have position on your opponent throughout the entire hand. That doesn’t mean you are obligated to play that hand down to the river. If you made it three bets with Q-Q, and the flop contained an ace and a king, continuing to play if there was any appreciable action would be foolish. But if no overcards fall, you’re a favorite over anyone who would raise with a pair of nines through a pair of jacks, as well as A-K, A-Q, A-J, and K-Q. THE

Kaizen OF POKER

79

PROFESSIONAL POKER CAN BE A HARD LIFE

The story of legendary three-time WSOP winner Stu Ungar has been told hundreds of times. He might have been the poster child for dysfunctionality in every phase of his life, except for those hours he spent at the card table. He won millions, but gambled and snorted it away until he died of a drug overdose at age 45 in a cheap, seedy Las Vegas motel. He’s not the only poker player with big-time money leaks either. His story is just the most colorful and outrageous in recent memory. The late Mr. Ungar is emblematic of the kinds of problems that many otherwise great players have. Poker on the tournament circuit can be a hard life. And it’s not just the extremely high variance at the poker table either. Even if you can pass life’s temptations by, you have the numbing effect of constant travel, of living much of the year in hotel rooms, getting little exercise, and chowing down buffet food. It might seem glamorous when you see it on TV, but poker can be a grind. If you’re planning on playing for a living, you need to think it through very carefully before you burn your bridges and take that first step into a casino as a professional poker player.

{zyx

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” — taro gold TIP: When I say fold a lot, I don’t mean fold three

hands and then play one. I mean fold 30 hands and then play big cards and pairs only. The only winners over time realize that professional poker requires grinding. Bad players loosen up when they 80 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

are winning and then give it back. At least in a cash game, tightening up usually works out better. Regardless, selective aggression rules the day.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #11: I will play with discipline.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

81

twelve. DID YOU

EMBRACE EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO GATHER INFORMATION?

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

IT’S EXHAUSTING TO PLAY GOOD POKER The person reading Card Player at the table instead of studying the game is at a great disadvantage. Not only does it benefit you to be working at the table, you also can take an unobservant player’s money, too. Poker is a game of incomplete information, and we’re forced to make decisions with less than all the facts. But incomplete information doesn’t mean there’s no information. There’s lots of information just waiting to be picked up at the card table. But we have to be observant to gather those pearls of wisdom, and that means staying in the game all of the time — when we’re not in a hand as well as when we’re involved in a pot. In fact, you’re much more likely to pick up tells and tidbits of usable 82

information from other players when you’re not involved in a hand. This is when you can afford to concentrate exclusively on the other players, rather than having to process information and make a decision about your own hand. So if you’re the one reading the sports pages at the poker table, you’re eschewing the chance to gather lots of useful intelligence you can use to win an additional pot here and there. Moreover, your more astute opponents know that when you’re reading, you’re not playing your best poker either. The only thing you should be reading at the poker table is the other players. One anonymous poker player admitted to always doing crosswords at the table, thinking she was saving dollars and fighting boredom. When she got to be a good player, all she could say to herself was, “Boy, was I wrong!”

GRAB THE ADVANTAGE: STUDY YOUR OPPONENTS WHENEVER YOU CAN If you don’t study your opponents whenever you can, you’re at a big disadvantage compared to players who do. All the pros know an ability to read one’s opponent is important. But you can’t read a player as though you were reading pages in a book. Information you become aware of at the poker table needs to be interpreted in light of how well you know your opponent. One person’s meat, as the proverb goes, is another one’s poison. Scrutinize your opponents — either online, where you’re taking notes, or in a brick-and-mortar casino — so you can correlate that knowledge with the hand he turns up at showdown. The information is there, free of charge, for the observant and dedicated player to glean and use. But knowledge is only relevant when it’s particularized to your opponent. That’s why the answer to so many poker questions is, “It depends.” If you want to give yourself the biggest edge you can, pay attention to the game. The best time to do this is when you’re not involved in a THE

Kaizen OF POKER

83

hand. If you’re playing online, keep good notes about your opponents. If you’re in a traditional casino, you can get up from the table or even make notes there. When you’re not involved in a hand, build a book on your adversaries. You’ll be glad you did. “Experience is the only teacher that gives the test first and the lesson later.” — taro gold

JUST SAY YES If someone bets on the river, and you decide to fold, and they ask if you would like to see one or both cards, say yes! If you see someone in that situation who says no, they are missing the chance to gather information. That says a lot about the player who doesn’t think it is important to gather information. You should be able to beat that player. If you are playing in a poker room that has a “last aggressor rule,” it means that whoever made the last bet or raise, whether it be pre-flop or on the flop or turn, if there is no bet on the river, must turn over their cards first. Take advantage of that rule if it exists in your card room. And again, if you see someone who just called an all in and then rushes to show their cards before gathering the information about the player who just made them go all in, go beat that player as well.

SNEAKY INFORMATION GATHERING YIELDS A GOOD TIP!

ME: “Which do you prefer, the last aggressor rule at the Borgata or the position reveal at most other casinos?” TOP LIMIT PLAYER JOE: “I prefer showing in position because

84 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

it benefits the experienced player. I don’t want to show how I play my hands.” Whichever you prefer, the best thing you can do is know the house rule to use it to your advantage.

{zyx

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #12: I will embrace every

opportunity to gather information.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

85

“Champions know success is inevitable; there is no failure, only feedback. They know the best way to forecast the future is to create it.” — taro gold

thirteen. DID YOU

CONTROL THE HANDS YOU WERE IN? Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

“Be wise and dignified like a swan: he maintains his composure, staying unruffled on the surface, and always paddling like crazy underneath.” — taro gold

I sat down with $200 at 2/5 NL. Before I touched the chair, the man two to my left said, “Are you the book author?” I said I was. He reminded me that we had played a couple of years ago, and he remembered it. In my very first hand, I was the big blind and there were no raises. I flopped the nut flush draw with Ay4y. By the time the river came, another player put me all in, and I lost the full $200. I like to buy in short just so I can chase a nut flush or go all in without fearing the loss of a big stack while possibly creating a helpful image. I rebought for $300. I missed the next nut flush draw just a few hands later, and was now down about $300. By then, everybody was firmly convinced that I was the fish at the table. Maybe I was, chasing

86

flushes over and over and missing each time. But if I was, I turned a switch in my brain and proceeded to play my A game without revealing there was a new player in my chair. I played solidly after that, and had a good read on the other players and their view of my image. I knew who would call my raises lightly, and I began building my stack, as I tend to do, with carefully timed bets. About an hour later, I opened in middle position with a small raise holding Ax9x, and was called by the button. The flop had two hearts. I check-called his small bet on the flop. The turn was a heart that straightened the board (made straights look possible). I had the nut flush. I checked my cards as if to look for a heart. I made a small bet as if to say, “Watch it, Mister; I will have a flush if another heart comes on the river.” The act sold him. He raised me, and I called him with a little slightly annoyed look while thinking (and thus projecting), “You better be careful; I have a heart in my hand.” The black six on the river made it clear to me that he had a straight. I checked with a slight air of “I missed,” and he immediately bet $60. The rest was poetry. I tanked for about 30 seconds and, while thinking to myself, “I can bluff and steal this hand,” I put out a checkraise to $200. He immediately went all in, thinking his straight would come as a shock to my bad raising, and I instacalled with my nut flush. He showed a straight. As I raked in the giant pot and all of his chips, I saw the whole table was stunned. Everyone’s expression was, “What just happened?” They really witnessed good Hollywood and expert poker playing from a player they did not know was capable of it. They were very surprised to reverse engineer the hand and see how expertly I had played it. I hadn’t just won the hand. I had orchestrated it to get all of the man’s chips. The image we create of ourselves, the same weapon that allows us to crash parties as though we were invited guests, allows us to walk our opponents down a primrose path to their own destruction.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

87

SMOOTH RUNS THE WATER WHERE THE RIVER IS DEEP Worry more about the player who calls than the player who bets — especially if the caller is tight or capable of trapping. If you are the caller in question, and have flopped top set with no flush or straight possibilities, there’s no need to put the hammer down right away; you can always make a big bet on a later round. But if you have a very good hand, it generally pays to get some money in the pot, either by calling or betting a reasonable sum. This way opponents are lured into playing a pot on the cheap — or so they think — while you’re slyly marrying them to their hand by having them invest so much in the pot. This leaves you in a wonderful position to take all their money with a bigger bet on the turn or the river. Nevertheless, be wary of ending up on the wrong end of this fish hook.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #13: I will control the hands I am in.

88 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

fourteen. DID YOU

STUDY THE OTHER PLAYERS’ PERSONALITIES AND TRY TO READ THEIR CARDS?

“Think deeper. Look closer. Nothing is as it seems.” — taro gold “Wise people understand even unspoken words.” — taro gold

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

Here is a big news flash that will catapult you immediately to intermediate/expert if you are not already. It is shocking to realize that the most important skill any player can develop at the poker table is the ability to read other players’ personalities, betting patterns, and, ultimately, their cards. Yet, as important as that skill is, sit down at any poker table around the world and note that 99 percent of the people playing (and playing for years and years) don’t even think that is part of the game at all! They look at their cell phones. They read their books. They chat and schmooze. They don’t even try at all to figure out what other people are holding or try to make sense of their opponents’ actions.

89

TIP: If you know someone is a good card reader and

you’re not there yet, go by their read. If it looks like they think a certain player never bluffs, then you assume that person isn’t bluffing either. TIP: Playing poker is like playing chess with nine other

people. You have to outplay and outwit all of them. Understanding the psychology of each of your opponents is extremely important.

THE ART OF CARD READING It is a euphoric feeling for the beginner when she realizes that although each player is dealt two personal, private cards, it is sometimes possible to know with near certainty what someone’s two hidden cards are. It’s almost as though you can see through both the cards and a player’s skull to gather the information that you need to make a good call, a good fold, or a great bluff. It feels like extrasensory perception. This doesn’t happen all the time, however, and none of this is 100 percent certain. If it were, poker wouldn’t be much of a game. But the necessity to act on incomplete information is what makes poker as richly textured as it is. And incomplete can be all over the lot. Even expert players experience hands where they’re flying blind and have no idea what in the world an opponent may be holding. Yet there are other moments of insight, usually derived from knowing a particular opponent’s playing proclivities. One must watch patterns. Is he aggressive, raising at every opportunity, or is he quietly calling? Such information will reveal the cards to you just as surely as if he were playing with his hand face up. Sometimes, moments of insight just seem to spring fully blown into one’s consciousness. Far more often, they are the result of deductive reasoning combined with the knowledge of an opponent’s playing style. This analytical process can be learned. 90 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

When you are new, and you first witness the skills of a good card reader, it will seem like a magic trick. One person bets, another person shows that he is folding his aces because he is certain the other person has a set of twos. And years later, after much practice, you are able to do that regularly. It is then that you realize it is the single most important skill for a poker player to develop.

PUTTING PLAYERS ON HANDS In tournaments and in cash games, from the moment the cards are in the air, start putting people on hands. Whether you personally decide to call or fold, keep a mental note on each player from the deal through the river. If players have to show their hands on the river, be sure to note whether or not you originally made a correct assessment. Don’t be afraid to change your opinion as the hand develops and you get more information. As soon as someone raises and the next person calls, you need to decide if the raiser is tight or loose and whether the caller has a big hand or is making a bad call. At that moment alone, who is winning? Do you think the caller knows the gap concept? Keep your initial assessments in mind when the flop comes and you are deciding whether each player is strong, weak, or bluffable. Will they beat the aggressor if they call? Make a bet with yourself, when you’re out of the pot, on who is going to win. If you’re in the pot, you had better be betting that you’ll be the winner! Even if subsequent actions provide strong evidence to the contrary, many beginning players judge an opponent on a hand without ever revising their initial assessment. “You had K-Q of spades,” a showoff wannabe pro tells his opponent. Usually it’s tough or impossible to be that specific. Putting a player on a range of hands usually makes more sense, and, in fact, that’s usually what’s best to do. In that instance, a better assessment might be: “I put him on A-K, A-Q, K-Q, A-J, or a big pocket pair. But as he checked on the flop, when an ace fell, I knew he either had a pair smaller than aces or two high cards THE

Kaizen OF POKER

91

that did not contain an ace. He also might have flopped a set of aces and was slow-playing to set up a check-raise on a subsequent betting round. Since the odds made it far more likely that he had something other than a set of aces, I discounted that hand and acted accordingly.” That said, I once astounded a table of players in a tournament at the Borgata. Whenever he sees me, the dealer, William, still tells everybody who will listen how I made such a great read that I must be an alien from another planet. The read, I will tell you, was easy. Here is how it went: The play limped around to the big blind, who wore his glee on his sleeve when no one raised. His demeanor screamed, “Wow, I am really getting to see the flop for free with this horrible hand! I check!” Then the flop was Q-J-5 rainbow (three different suits), and he had to act first. He was suddenly extremely interested in the hand! He thought a little and then let out with a bet of 50 tournament dollars. I said, “I know you have Q-5 offsuit, and I wouldn’t call your bet of one dollar!” I instantly folded, and, stunned, he turned up Q-5 offsuit to show me that I had been correct. So how did I know? Obviously, he didn’t have J-Q, because that is not a hand with which he would have exhibited elation about seeing the flop for free. I’d come to the same deduction with a big blind hand like J-J, Q-Q, or 5-5. My second choice was J-5, but I went with my first choice of horrible possibilities. Voilà! Q-5 offsuit! Anyone who gave it any thought and paid attention could have made the same deduction. But don’t tell that to William. He still thinks I’m the best card reader who ever lived.

BIG CARDS AND THE TEXTURE OF THE FLOP The feel of the flop induces or inhibits betting. Professional poker players always realize the flop’s texture can induce or inhibit betting. Some flops just look like they help people, while others never seem to help anyone. Some flops, however, are so portentous, they appear to

92 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

have produced a hand so big for the first person who bets into it that almost no one will call. Here are some examples. A really ragged flop such as 7-3-2 will probably help no one except the blinds, and that’s only if they’re in a pot that wasn’t raised. No one in his right mind will voluntarily see the flop with cards connecting with these dogs. The exception would be on those rare occasions when someone plays a hand such as A-7 suited, or a pair of sevens, threes, or twos, for one bet. A flop with two or three face cards will probably help a lot of players. After all, hold’em is a big-card game, and most players who voluntarily enter pots do so with hands containing pairs or big cards. A flop such as A-Q-J can provide something for everyone, or almost everyone, who has seen the flop. When that happens, the question isn’t how much the flop helped you, but how much it helped your opponent. Sometimes you’ll see a flop such as J-T-9 suited. In this case, someone might have made a flush, another player might have a straight, or someone else might have two pair or a pair with a straight or a flush draw. Even a straight flush is possible. When that happens, most players who haven’t been helped in a big way by the flop are likely to fold at the first sign of a bet. The same goes for when the flop is 8-8-8. Only someone with an eight, or another pair, or an ace in his hand, is likely to continue playing. After all, even a full house is dead in the water if an opponent happens to have the fourth eight in his hand. Texture is critical in determining how your hand stacks up vis-à-vis your opponents’ hands. But when you examine a flop’s texture, do what the pros all do: examine it in light of your opponents’ playing styles and a firm knowledge of the kinds of cards they are likely to hold in their hands. If a tight player is not in the blind, you can be certain that a ragged flop did not help him. Other players, those who call with almost anything, can be helped by almost any flop. Nevertheless, the texture of a flop can go a long way in helping you assess whether your opponent really has a hand or not.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

93

GETTING A READ What did they call with? Probably with something. If the flop is TyJyQy, and you have A-A with the ace of clubs and make a bet, and they call, no matter how bad they are, or how bad you think they are, you can rule out them having 2x3x. What might they have? They could’ve flopped a flush or a straight. They could have a red queen with the king of clubs. You have to assess. Then, when you see their reaction to the turn, you have to decide, were you ahead on the flop, and are you still ahead? If they were on a straight or flush draw, could they have made it? Your assessment will determine whether to bet and how much. Do you want them to call or fold? What would you do if they went all in? If you would fold, then probably don’t bet. You want to see the river. You don’t want to get raised off your hand. Another option is to make a small bet, because sometimes a simple check may look weak and trigger them to make a bet bigger than you would have confronted otherwise.

WHEN LESS IS MORE While big hands are pretty to look at, there are some occasions when less is most assuredly more. One instance is when you’d rather be out from under another player’s dominating hand. Suppose no one has called the blind, and you raised with two big cards. The big blind calls, and the two of you see the flop, which is 8-4-3 of mixed suits. This doesn’t look too threatening at all, so you bet, only to find yourself check-raised by the big blind, and he’s a player whose game you respect. What do you suppose he might have? Well, he might have been lying in the weeds with a big pocket pair, but it’s more likely he called your raise with a hand like A-8. You know that he realizes it’s more likely you raised with two big cards than a big pair, and he’s intent on punishing you for your aggression by raising with what he suspects is the best hand. 94 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

If you have a very big hand, he’s in trouble. If all you have are big cards that weren’t helped by the flop, he’s in the lead, and this is likely to be the case more often than not. If you had your choice of big cards to play at this point, and chose A-K, you’d be shortchanging yourself. There’s a much bigger chance that you would be dominated by your opponent. You would also have fewer live outs than you would if you picked two smaller cards, as long as the two cards you selected were bigger than the cards on the board. It’s not very likely that your opponent is holding a hand like J-T, which means you have six live cards to give you a bigger pair than your opponent. On the other hand, if you had A-K and he was holding A-8, any ace that fell would give you the illusion that you were in the lead. But it would only be an illusion, and a costly one at that. In reality, your opponent would have two pair, and put you in a world of hurt. Only the king is a safe card, but there are just three of those left in the deck, and your chances are looking grim. But a pair of jacks or a pair of tens will beat a pair of eights, just as surely as a pair of aces does, and those lower ranks are free from potential domination by your opponent’s hand. Sometimes hold’em can be a very counterintuitive game.

LIMPERS If a good player limps under the gun (is the first person to call the big blind), watch out for pocket aces or other big pocket pairs. Note that most good players won’t limp under the gun, especially in tournaments. If they do, they probably have a low pocket pair and are hoping to hit a set inexpensively, or a high pocket pair that they intend to trap you with, or maybe something like K-J suited. If they have any of the weaker hands, they will fold in a tight game, if they’re raised. Learn to think like the other players. Why are they raising? Are they desperate? Do they trap? Are they straightforward?

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

95

A PAIRED FLOP PRESENTS A GREAT CARD-READING OPPORTUNITY Assume a tight player raises pre-flop out of position and gets four callers. The flop is J-J-3 rainbow. The original raiser makes a big bet on the flop, and gets one caller. What does the original raiser have? What does the caller have? Answer: The original raiser has a big pair above the board, and the caller has trips at least. Almost always. If the original raiser is stubbornly married to his cards and goes all in, happy birthday to the caller.

HOW YOU CAN TELL WHAT PLAYERS ARE HOLDING

•

You can tell by how they look at the flop. People tend to look at the card that helped them.

•

You can tell by how they put out their bet.

•

You can tell by the pacing of their bet. Fast players sometimes don’t realize that they play their important hands more slowly.

•

You can tell by the confidence in their eyes.

•

You can tell by the way they speak and breathe.

•

You can tell whether they are acting or not.

•

You can analyze their betting patterns.

•

You can analyze their starting ranges.

•

You can tell by their body language.

•

You can tell by the response to another bet.

•

You can tell by their eagerness.

{zyx

96 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

A tight gentleman in seat 5 made a big pre-flop raise, and the lady directly to his left called. The way he looked at the king on the flop and checked, I put him on slow playing K-K-K. (He would’ve bet if he had A-K in his hand and saw a K on the flop.) The turn was a J. Interesting! I was certain the man had K-K-K, and from her Hollywood performance, I knew the lady had just made her inside straight. She just called $40. He couldn’t see her body language, as she was seated next to him, and he was completely unconcerned with her hand. On the river, which did not pair the board, they raised each other all in for about $500 each. I told the guy next to me that if the man had seen her Hollywood, he wouldn’t have lost all his chips. My neighbor said he’d been watching, and hadn’t known she had a straight. I’m the only one who bothers to read cards at 1/2 NL. Step right up! But I also have a big confession. Very recently, in a 2/5 NL game, I made a double blunder! I was about to leave, but decided to play my free under-the-gun hand. Of course, I looked down and saw pocket kings. I raised to $35 to protect my hand, and got two callers. The flop was J-9-2 rainbow. I bet out $65, and got one caller. The caller was a man who was sitting with his girlfriend behind him. I saw him make a little pout and then think for a minute before calling. As soon as I saw that pout and the hesitation, I put him on a set! I was expecting him to raise. But he just called. Then the turn was small, and I ignored my read and went all in! The man instacalled with his set of jacks. I walked away with no chips. Sigh. I should not have played one more hand before leaving for all of my chips. I should not have ignored my read! I would use that little Hollywood pout as a fake tell if I thought anyone but me paid attention to it. “You all laugh at me because I am different. I laugh at you because you’re all the same.” — vick imbornoni

THE

Kaizen OF POKER

97

CONSISTENCY If you see a player who always makes a large continuation flop bet when he raised pre-flop, you can win some pots without putting him on a hand at all. If you are out of position, trap him when you hit a big flop by check-raising. Or, in position, flat call and then make a big bet on the turn. You might even try bluffing, unless he is the kind of player that can’t release a big pair. Which reminds me — you have to be able to release to a good hand, especially out of position, unless you have reason to believe a big bet is a bluff. TIP: It’s not just a matter of reading the cards; you also

have to read what the player is going to do with her cards.

READING MINDS It helps to know some typical thoughts that run through other players’ heads at a table. “Hmm, someone just posted the blinds in addition to the usual blinds. That’s lots of dead money in the pot. I think I’ll go ahead and just raise with nothing to steal all that.” “I have to make this bet on the river even though I missed my flush. It’s the only way I can win this pot. If they re-raise, I’ll fold; otherwise, I just might win this pot.” “I raised with K-K, but the flop has an A. I better make a smallish bet and pray no one has an A to call.” “A lot of people hardly work in poker. Instead of doing the hard work, they hardly work.” — kenna james

98 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

THE ART OF STUDYING OTHER PLAYERS

PEOPLE ARE PREDICTABLE

At least most of the time they are. Poker players are no different than anyone else on this planet. We all fall into habitual patterns of behavior — default positions, as it were. They enable us to deal with many of life’s prosaic choices on autopilot, and without giving them too much thought. We’re that way at the card table, too. Many players will call, rather than fold or raise. It’s a predictable pattern of behavior. And when you can spot this kind of behavior in one of your opponents, then any time she acts contrary to this, you have a view of some anomalous behavior that jumps out at you like a bright spotlight on a dark night. Something’s happened to make this player respond in a manner that’s different from her usual betting pattern. If she raises when she usually calls, you can throw all but your very best hands away. If she’s a habitual raiser who just calls, you have to wonder if she is playing a really weak hand, or has a very strong one, and is acting out of character with her real self in order to lure you into a bet. Wait until she comes back over the top and check-raises, garnering a few more chips for her guile.

{zyx

DEVELOP A THEORY Develop a working theory about everyone at the table as soon as possible. Pay attention and revise accordingly. Who is truly confident, and who is feigning confidence? And as for yourself, be inconsistent! THE

Kaizen OF POKER

99

Here are some valuable observations you might make that can put money in your pocket. Watch the player who: • • • • • • • • • • • •

Overvalues his cards Sees every flop Won’t fold if he has good cards — even if it misses the flop Is a nonbeliever. Always thinks everyone is bluffing Bluffs too much Plays too many hands Never bluffs Is tricky Never misses a chance to check-raise Is too aggressive Is too tight Is too loose

ONLY THE CHIP RUNNER KNOWS FOR SURE When you sit down at any game of poker, the first and easiest thing to do is to scrutinize each and every player. Do you happen to know whether any of them is tight or weak? Are they in the current hand and the next hand after that? Do they look like they are winning or losing? More specifically, how big are their current chip stacks relative to the table? The chip stack is often an indication of a player’s current success, but not always. Some players buy significantly more chips than the game at hand requires. They may do this because they are extremely loose and want to weather the usually enormous swings without constantly rebuying. Or they may do it to pace themselves, buying in for their whole day’s bankroll and planning never to rebuy. Or, more likely, they may do it to intimidate newcomers to the game and look like winners. It won’t take long for you to assess the truth about such posturers. The truly good players practice

100 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

the slow build. The loose players put chips — usually dead chips — into every pot. These chips are only serving to build someone else’s bankroll, and stand no chance of taking down the pot. Make a mental note every time someone rebuys chips at a cash game.

WINDOWS TO THE POKER PLAYER’S SOUL: HANDS, EYES, ADAM’S APPLE Poker players are fond of saying things like, “I knew what he had, because I was able to look into his soul.” If that sounds like something you might expect to hear from a fortune-teller or a palm reader, you’re probably not too far off. This is because poker players often do have a unique ability to divine opponents’ hands from a variety of nonverbal clues and cues, known collectively as tells. Although poker players can’t really look into someone’s soul, their cues do come from more tangible aspects of an opponent’s game, and that usually means reading his hands and his neck. Players take great pains to hide their expressions, sometimes wearing sunglasses, or even those awful cat’s eye glasses that Greg Raymer wore to shield his eyes during the 2004 World Series of Poker. While most don’t carry it to the extent that Greg did with his sunglasses, many players are fond of wearing ball caps with the brims pulled down, so their eyes — after all, they’re the windows to the soul — are shaded and tough to read.

HAND TELLS ARE MORE EASILY READ THAN OTHERS A poker player’s hands are naked and exposed for the entire table to behold. Many players’ hands will tremble slightly when they have a good hand. That trembling is a purely involuntary action that can’t readily be controlled. It’s a good clue in determining whether an opponent’s big

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 101

bet means a big hand or a bad bluff. It’s usually a sign of a very strong hand, but not always, as some players simply have tremors they can’t control. There are other involuntary cues, too: Blood vessels in the neck or an Adam’s apple will pulse. While many players are fond of hiding behind sunglasses, most poker players who look for tells are really looking at their opponent’s hands and neck, not their eyes. That’s why you’ll see some pros, like Phil “the Unabomber” Laak, covered completely in a hooded sweatshirt pulled forward beyond the dark sunglasses. Note that players who go to such lengths to hide are keenly aware of every aspect of the game and bent on using every trick to their advantage. The pros all know that tells are highly individualized, too. Although there are tells that are generally true for the majority of players, each one needs to be vetted against a particular opponent’s playing style. Even if you’ve picked up a player-specific tell, it’s probably not valid all of the time. And because a player who comes out betting or raising tends to keep on betting or raising (like physics, where a body in motion tends to stay in motion, and a body at rest tends to stay at rest), it can cost a lot of money to chase down a raiser only to find that your tell was either inaccurate or inoperative for some reason.

WATCH YOUR OPPONENTS Are they getting ready to call or fold? Are the tells reliable, or are they pretending they’re going to call? Many players will hold their cards with their wrist cocked when preparing to fold — this is a very reliable tell. If you look to the left before it’s your turn to act, and see that your opponents look as though they’re going to release their hands, you might wind up with the distinct advantage of being last to act. You’ll then be able to raise into a group of players you knew were going to fold anyway. This will represent a very strong hand to your less observant adversaries.

102 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

FURTIVE GLANCES, POSTURE CHANGES, STARE-DOWNS, AND CHIP-SLAMS A glance at your hand and then a glance toward your chips is usually an indication of a strong hand. Many players will sit up straight in their seats when they have a good hand, a distinct difference from the kind of table slouch that many players affect when they don’t have a hand worth playing. Amateurish bluffs often include the near slamming of chips into the betting area along with a stare-down worthy of a snarling boxer attempting to intimidate his opponent. Conversely, sometimes it is so, so obvious when someone has missed their draw on the river that their body language practically screams, “If you bet like you have something, I will certainly fold; go ahead and take it.” If you find yourself facing such a player, go ahead and make that confident bet. Obviously, you shouldn’t be the one screaming, “Take it!”

KNOW WHO WILL FOLD TO A GOOD BLUFF It can’t be said enough: good players fold all the time. They fold if they have the worst of it, and they’ll also fold to a good bluff made by a solid player who bets when the cards suggest he actually has a big hand, even when he doesn’t. That’s not to say a good player is going to fold every time you bet into him. Sometimes he’ll have a good hand and call, or a better hand and raise. Sometimes he might read you for a bluff. He’ll raise just to steal the momentum and cause you to fold a weak hand. But good players can be bluffed, and that’s because they are both selective and aggressive. The selectivity quotient in their game dictates that they fold some hands because they’re looking for better spots to risk their money. This is where the art of poker comes into play, and it’s an art that begins with knowing one’s opponent. Some can be bluffed, while others will never fold if there’s even the slightest inkling that they have the best

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 103

hand. So, it’s clear that what works against one opponent might not work against another. “Instead of putting others in their place, put yourself in theirs.” — taro gold “Is seat 3 annoying you? Are you fantasizing about punching seat 9 in the face? Now ask yourself: what do you have in common with them?” — michelle tomko

GET IN THEIR HEADS BY GETTING IN THEIR SKIN Ultimately, your goal is to understand the moves and motives of every other player at the table. When you are trying to figure out if they are confident and hope you will call, or weak and hope you will fold, try mirroring how they are sitting. Subtly, put your arms in the position that their arms are in. Tilt your head the same way. Look where they are looking. Do you feel confident like that? Then fold. Do you feel worried? Then call. Try doing this when you are not in the hand, and decide if you can read them and their cards. Then, perhaps, another player will make the call, and you can find out if your assessment was correct.

PROFILING STYLES: YOU VERSUS THEM Now let’s get political correctness out of the way. I desire peace on Earth and believe all things are connected and that we are all one. I have been to all 50 states and many foreign countries. I have friends from every race all over the world and of every political persuasion. On the poker table, it is helpful to forget all that and assume the role of people profiler; if that means being an ageist and a sexist, so be it. You may not get a job at the airport, but you will win more money at poker if you 104 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

begin typecasting other players. And while you are at it, what is your poker type? You can tell a lot from a player’s appearance Do they wear a wedding ring or carry pictures of the grandkids? (Tight!) Do they have lucky talismans? (Superstitious.) Dark sunglasses? (Conscious of tells.) Suit? (Riverboat gambler.) Disheveled? (Undisciplined player.) Did they come from the craps table with black chips? (Gambler.) Do they do fancy chip maneuvers? (Experienced and maybe not too patient; ready to make a move.) Are they wearing button-down shirts or a creative T-shirt? (They play relaxed and creatively.) Are the chips stacked neatly? (Compulsively tight.)

THE MAN OF A CERTAIN AGE WHO LIMPS WITH A-K How to spot him: •

He usually has white hair and looks like a very respectable man with a real life.

•

He has several reasons for limping with A-K. First, his main motive is to always be as tricky as possible.

•

He knows he is seen as a very tight player, because he is a very tight player, and if he raises under the gun, everyone will fold, and he will only win the blinds.

•

He likes to trap his opponents by feigning weakness and then taking them down. He bluffs rarely, but will make a stab at it from time to time. This is not the best part of his game, so he likes to avoid it.

Is this you? THE

Kaizen OF POKER 105

If so, stop it! Your aim is to become a player who is not so easily profiled. You need to mix up your style and become inconsistent. Your aim is to become someone who cannot be put on a hand, someone who is capable of playing tight or loose or aggressively. Take your skill at trapping, and realize that you can use it sometimes, but other times win with aggression. Don’t be so easy to read. Here’s a real-life illustration. I recall playing in a 1/2 NL game at the Borgata. I sized up all of the players as quickly as I could. There was a Man of a Certain Age (MCA) dressed like the Unabomber, with a hoody zipped all the way up to cover his Adam’s apple and the hood pulled forward over his forehead. He was wearing giant dark sunglasses. He had a bushy white mustache covering most of his lower face. The only thing visible on this man was the part of his mouth that peeked out from under his mustache. I knew from this getup that he was aware of tells. He tried to understand other players’ tells. He felt tells were a very important part of the game. He was afraid of revealing his own tells, and so he hid under his “cover” and tried to keep a low profile. He folded for the whole first half hour, and I knew he was tight. He only played big cards. When he finally entered a hand, he limped under the gun. I immediately put him on pocket aces, because he wouldn’t play any other hand under the gun. But other players stayed in the hand as well. Someone raised. I instafolded. A player called, and the MCA flat-called. Three players saw the flop. Well, I stared at the MCA’s face when the flop came down. There was an ace on the flop, and the man could not help producing a tell with the only part of his body that was exposed. His mouth made a quick puckered pout as he looked at the community ace and quietly checked. Bingo! I knew for sure my guess was right. This man had flopped a set of aces. I was not in the hand and was the only one who noticed this bad Hollywood acting. Another player bet. A second player called, and the MCA called as well. On the turn, he made a small minimum check-raise, and was 106 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

called by one player. On the river, he went all in, and was called. As the man raked in an enormous pot, everyone was shocked to see that he had a set of aces. Really? To me, it was as if the man’s cards were face up, and his style remained consistent for the rest of the session. If people at the table were playing great poker, this man would have only won the blinds. Or if the flop did not have an ace, the man might have been punished for limping with aces. While I got a confirmation of my poker-typing of the MCA, I also learned about the other player who lost his chips to the man. Neither that man nor the other players in the hand made any effort to put other players on hands. They did not try to read tells. Like so many players, they simply played cards — more or less in a random, unskilled way. That knowledge would prove useful to me a few hands later. The female counterpart of the MCA is, predictably, the WCA; that is, the Woman of a Certain Age. She is more likely to make a small raise with her big hands. But she never bluffs. If she puts her chips in the middle, and there are three hearts on the flop, she has the AxKx. If she has the QxTx, and you happen to have the Ax4x nut flush, she will call you on the river. She will not fold her flush, even though it isn’t the nut flush. But if she bets, she has the goods.

LESSONS LEARNED

•

Don’t be so easy to profile.

•

It’s important to pay attention to every detail.

•

It’s important to put people on hands.

•

Reading tells can help if you master the skill.

{zyx

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 107

BAD CALLS It’s very profitable to notice which players make bad calls. Whether you raise or someone else raises, is there a player who always calls? Bingo, you’ve found him. He can’t always have a good calling hand. See how often he takes down the pot when he has called someone else’s raise. What does he do when he has a good hand?

THE BOOK OF TELLS “TELL” There is hardly a poker player alive who has not at least perused the pages of Mike Caro’s deservedly famous The Book of Tells. How do I know this? I can tell. New players who have not read the book exhibit the tells referenced in Caro’s excellent book. After two hands, that’s obvious. These players are easy to beat, but their presence at the table is usually quite ephemeral. But new players who have read the book make concerted, but usually poor, efforts to do the opposite of what they’ve read. If they’re weak, they’ll look away. If they’re strong, they’ll stare you down. It’s beneficial to note that most players, whatever their strategy, are consistent! And notwithstanding all of the famous actors who play the game — Brad Garrett (with whom I had the pleasure of playing while he joked that he had more fans watching his game than his show), James Woods (played with him, too!), Gabe Kaplan, and 2005 World Series of Poker women’s champion Jennifer Tilly — very few players are good poker actors. Figure out if a particular player has read The Book of Tells and is trying to bamboozle you with reverse psychology, and you’ll know whether to call, fold, or raise. As I often do, I sat down to play 2/5 NL at the Borgata and bought in for the minimum $200. I posted the first hand in mid position. The guy in a fancy suit drinking beer with a lime wedge, sporting a pinky ring (and, I later noticed, red shoes), had a big stack and limped under 108 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

the gun. Knowing exactly the whole sequence that would transpire, I raised to $20 with A-T. He predictably re-raised, as I knew he would, to $110. I called. When the flop came, he pushed, as I knew he would, and I instacalled. He had A-7. I doubled up. True, I could’ve gotten unlucky, and he could’ve hit the flop, but I was prepared to gamble that I had him beat pre-flop, and he was on a move that he would carry through to the bitter end. I was just as determined as he was to prove my theory correct. Next big hand. Same table. I raised with A-Q spades. The flop was all spades, king-high. I peeked at my cards. I bet $20 and got a caller. The turn was another king. I didn’t like the paired board, but was not overly concerned. Inducing a bet, I checked and called $80. The river was a low non-spade. I checked. He tanked and bet $110. I called. I knew he was a tight player. He thought he had the best hand, and put me on the ace of spades, maybe with a pair, and wanted me to call. That’s why I am now up $500. If I had checked that flop, he would’ve been suspicious. If I had bet big, he probably wouldn’t have gotten involved. I had to convince him that I had a naked ace of spades and wanted to get to the river cheaply.

NOTICE ALL HANDS SHOWN ON THE RIVER When you see players’ hands on the river, rewind the tape in your head. What position did they play that in? How much did it cost them to call? Did they bet, raise, or simply call with that hand?

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #14: I will study the other

players’ personalities and try to read their cards.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 109

fifteen. DID YOU PAY

ATTENTION TO THE OTHER PLAYERS’ BETTING PATTERNS?

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

NOTICE PEOPLE’S BETTING PATTERNS Who is cautious? Who is aggressive? Whenever you have a chance to see a player’s hole cards, always review those hole cards against the cards on the board and his betting pattern. Is he careful? Does he bluff when he should, or when he shouldn’t? Does he call to keep his opponents honest, even though his hand is weak and has little chance of winning?

110

WHY ADJUSTMENTS ARE NECESSARY WHEN YOU MOVE UP IN LIMITS In order to make an adjustment to bigger games, you’ll need to be sensitive to the relationship between pot odds and the odds against hitting your hand. You’ll also need to learn how to deduce what hands your opponents might have by correlating their betting patterns against the hands they show down. And while you’re scrutinizing your opponents, be on the lookout for their bluffing frequencies. Do they bluff often, or seldom? When they do bluff, is it predicated on scare cards, such as three-suited cards coming on the board? Do they also seem to bluff by representing very unlikely hands? Be observant. The best time to do this is when you’re not involved in a hand.

THE MORE BETTING PATTERNS YOU KNOW, THE MORE YOU’LL WIN A thorough knowledge of betting patterns is just one element in a poker player’s toolbox, but it may be the most important. Betting patterns can help you track the playing styles of your adversaries. They can also help you analyze some parts of your own game that may need improvement. What’s the most common pattern you’ll find in a hold’em game? It goes like this: call, bet, bet, check. You’ve seen your opponents do this all the time, and you probably do it yourself. You call the blinds before the flop, catch a good hand, something like top pair with a good kicker, so you bet the flop and bet the turn, too. But when you fail to improve to three-of-a-kind or two pair, you decide to check the river to save a bet just on the odd chance that you’re beaten.

DON’T BE STUBBORN Many players are reluctant to throw away a hand to a check-raise. As a result of their stubborn nature, they lose a big bet on the turn and THE

Kaizen OF POKER 111

another on the river. And they needn’t do this. After all, most of the time that you’re check-raised, your opponent has the better hand. And most of the time, if he exhibits this betting pattern, you should do the smart thing. Throw your hand away. If you do, you will have saved money. And money saved is equal to money won. Even if you are a consistently winning player, calling a check-raise when you strongly suspect you are beaten will take two hours of play to recoup. When Kenny Rogers was singing “You gotta know when to fold ’em,” that was his message. Sigh. I have another confession. Yesterday, I played a truly focused game of $20/$40 limit hold’em. I won nearly all of the pots I was in, and turned $200 into $3,000. I was outplaying every other player who challenged me and impressing the table. I made very few mistakes, but I made one that cost me $120, and I knew I was making it in real time. I had Ax5x on the button. Many players saw the flop when someone re-raised, and so the pot was very big. The flop was Qx8x4{. The little blind bet out, and I raised to get a free card. Two people called, and the little blind, Jed (a very good player who leans toward tight) re-raised me. The turn was a 4x. Jed checked, and my first stupid decision was to bet. Jed check-raised me, and I was fairly certain he had eights full. But, what did I do? Yes, I called. Then he bet the river and, yes, I called, saying something like, “Do you really have eights full?” I should never have bet the turn, but once I did, I should never have called Jed’s checkraise, because that made calling on the river almost a given, which was a third mistake. Why should I have known that Jed had pocket eights? There were several clues. He wasn’t aggressive enough pre-flop to put him on Q-Q. He called a raise out of the big-blind pre-flop, which he would not do with a ragged hand. He liked the flop enough to bet and re-raise it. He re-raised when the board paired. He would have no reason to bluff there. If his hand were a king flush, and he didn’t put me on the nut flush, he would have simply bet on the turn or check-called. He would have respected the paired board.

112 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

WHAT OTHER COMMON BETTING PATTERNS CAN REVEAL ABOUT YOUR OPPONENTS These aren’t the only betting patterns to be aware of. If you see someone play a pattern characterized by betting or raising and then folding, you’ve got an opponent who is sufficiently disciplined to throw away hands like a pair of jacks to an overcard. He might also get rid of Big Slick when the flop is small, and there’s some action by other players before it’s his turn to act. Another pattern to be aware of is this one: bet, bet, check, and either check, bet, call, or raise on the river. This pattern marks a player who takes a free card when the circumstances suit him, and you can mark him as a tough, disciplined foe. Check, call, bet is a pattern you don’t see all that often. This usually happens when you check a flop that looks very ragged and isn’t likely to have helped either your opponent or you. When your opponent bets, you call behind him. This creates the illusion that you either are a compulsive caller with no hope of winning the pot, or you did get some part of the flop, or you picked up a draw and are justified in continuing on in the hand. If your opponent sees you as a solid player and not a calling station, he’ll probably go with the latter of the two possibilities. Now, regardless of whether the turn card helps you or not, you can come out betting. If a smallish card falls, your opponent may think you’ve made a straight or that you have two pair. If all he has is two overcards, he’s likely to throw them away. On the other hand, if a big card falls that does not help your opponent, he’s likely to give you credit for calling on the flop with two overcards, hitting one of them on the turn. Now you have a top pair with a big kicker. If he cannot beat that, he’s likely to fold. Although this is a strong play, it will only work against opponents good enough and disciplined enough to throw away a hand they were betting, or even raising, because your betting pattern convinced them that you have a superior hand. On the other hand, if you try this ploy THE

Kaizen OF POKER 113

against a perpetual caller, you will only win when you get lucky and catch your card; you will never be able to drive him off, whatever hand he has. In fact, he may be blissfully ignorant of your betting pattern. He may not even realize that you were sending him a message.

BIG-HAND BETTING PATTERNS Here’s another common betting pattern. Call, check-call, check-raise, bet. This is the hallmark of a player with a good hand. Perhaps he’s flopped a set, or two pair, or even an ace to his A-K. So he checks and calls when someone else bets the flop, and then check-raises the turn in hopes of trapping an opponent or two for a few bets. Then he continues to drive the hand by betting the river. There’s nothing unusual here. You’ve done it yourself, and this is probably the most common betting pattern employed by players holding big hands. They quietly call the flop in hopes of getting in a check-raise on the turn; then they bet out on the river. So when you see the pattern of check-call followed by a check-raise on the turn, credit your opponent with a big hand that’s probably better than yours. While you might find some extraordinarily creative players who will check-raise bluff every now and then, it doesn’t happen all that often in most games, and almost never at lower limits. When you’re the victim of a check-call, check-raise betting pattern, go ahead and throw your hand away unless you’ve got an extraordinarily strong hand or a draw at the right price to a better hand than your opponent is likely to be holding. Don’t underestimate the player who looks weak and then check-raises on the turn.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #15: I will pay attention

to the other players’ betting patterns.

114 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

sixteen. DID YOU MANAGE THE MANIACS?

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

A MANIAC ON THE LOOSE Let’s describe the characteristics of a typical maniac. If you bet, he’ll raise — even when he doesn’t have a hand to support his action. If you check, he’ll bet. He, on the other hand, seldom checks, unless he is in early position, really has the goods, and is trying to trap a number of opponents by check-raising. When someone bets, the maniac usually raises. If you re-raise, he is more likely to make it four bets than give you credit for a big hand and simply call. He personifies an action player — albeit one who consistently shows too much speed by deliberately overvaluing and overplaying

115

his hand. He wants to get as much money in the pot as often as possible, and frequently he does. Maniacs are ego-driven. Betting, raising, or re-raising is the measure of a maniac’s manhood; he’d rather bully you out of a pot than beat you in a showdown. Maniacs also self-destruct and go broke quite regularly, but not before taking a number of other players down with them. With a maniac at your table, you need to be aware of the changes his presence invariably brings. Because of his propensity for raising and re-raising, more of your chips will be at risk. Lose, and you’re likely to lose more than you otherwise would. Wins are also likely to be bigger. If you are a winning player, a maniac in your game will usually increase your average winnings in the long run. While it is likely to be a measurable increase, it probably won’t be off the charts. On the other hand, there will be a dramatic increase in the fluctuations you can expect on an hourly basis. In the short run, you are susceptible to large swings, since you’ll be putting more chips at risk almost every time you play a hand. If you are on a limited bankroll, or have a hard time adapting to this kind of volatility, you might want to avoid games with maniacs in them.

MANIAC STRATEGY If you do find a maniac on your left, or a player with a huge stack, think about making the money on the table flow backward to you, and re-raise with your good hands. This usually results in you playing the pot heads-up with the maniac (who presumably raised with a lesser hand than yours). That makes you the favorite. He’ll win his share of pots, but you’ll win your share, too. Since you are entering pots with cards that most likely are superior to his, you’ll come away the winner more often.

116 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

STARTING HANDS CHANGE VALUE IN VERY AGGRESSIVE GAMES Starting hands change in value when there’s a maniac playing. When you expect to be raised, you can’t play hands like 9z8z. Suited connectors do best in unraised, multiway pots, when you’re trying to get in cheaply. You’re hoping that you’ll flop a big hand against a relatively large number of opponents — who, presumably, will pay you off if you’re lucky enough to flop a big hand that holds up. The only time you can play smaller, suited connectors against a maniac is from late position. In this case, the maniac has already acted and hasn’t raised, and you figure you have a good chance to see the flop for a small amount against a relatively large number of opponents. You’ll find yourself passing on a lot of hands you’d usually play in a less frenetic game, and it can be frustrating. Nevertheless, you don’t want to commit too much on hands that are long shots — particularly when the fear of a raise from the maniac will constrict the number of opponents you’d otherwise expect.

WHY RE-RAISING CAN BE MANDATORY, NOT DISCRETIONARY, IN AGGRESSIVE GAMES Pairs and big cards go up in value. If you’re holding 9-9, and the maniac raises before you act, you must re-raise in order to constrict the number of opponents you’ll play against. If you’re lucky, you’ll find yourself heads-up with the maniac. When you’re heads-up against an opponent who raises on anything — or nothing — you are favored when you hold a pair. Sure, there’ll be times when the maniac really has a big hand, but there’ll be many more times when you’ll find that he raised with absolutely nothing. That’s when you’ll capture the pot. If you hold a hand like A-K or A-Q, you can also re-raise and try to get heads-up against the maniac. If you flop a pair, you figure to have the best hand. That’s not the problem. The problem is what happens THE

Kaizen OF POKER 117

when the flop is three rags (weak, unconnected cards). If you’re holding A-Q, and the flop is 8-6-3, what should you do when the maniac bets? Since he frequently raises on anything, he’s just as likely to have caught a pair — or even flopped a set — than he is to have missed the flop entirely with a hand like J-9. You can’t be certain. Since the maniac may well re-raise if you try to define your own hand by raising, you’re in a guessing situation. These are hands where you might decide to gamble with him. You might also employ a strategy of sometimes releasing your hand when the flop doesn’t fit and sometimes hanging in there — so he knows he can’t run you off the pot every time you raise and catch a ragged flop. It’s a judgment call — and not an easy one at that. Sometimes you have to call or bluff-raise, even though you are an underdog, to capture the pot. Do this simply because you are giving up too much of an edge if you allow him to bet and take the pot every time you’re heads-up and the flop is unfavorable to you. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch enough flops with your bigger hands. You’ll be able to check and call on the flop and try for a check-raise on the turn or river. This might slow down the maniac a bit, since he’ll eventually learn that a check on your part doesn’t always imply weakness. There are, however, many maniacs who just ignore these subtler features of the game. They prefer to wield a bludgeon rather than a rapier. When you’re playing against a maniac of this magnitude, forget all about subtlety. It won’t work. You’ll need to make some big hands, have him do your betting for you, and build the pot — which, of course, he’ll gladly do — and then snap him off with a check-raise that he’ll invariably call.

AN ACCORDION-STYLE PLAYING ZONE Poker is never as simple as it first appears. Suppose you were in a loose, passive, low-limit hold’em game — where seven or eight players routinely 118 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

see the flop. In a game like this, the playing zone is very different. In fact, in a game that’s loose enough, the playing zone often embraces the entire deck. Players are liable to turn up with any kind of hand. Losing to an opponent who runs down your A-Q with a hand like Q-2 — because he was fortunate enough to catch one of three remaining deuces on the river — might be exasperating, but it’s not all that uncommon. With an extended playing zone that’s stretched out like an accordion, you can’t take too much for granted. A hand like top pair, top kicker can be very vulnerable simply because any card that doesn’t directly help you might help another player. The playing zone’s width goes directly to a hand selection and playing strategy. In a loose, passive game with seven or eight players staying to see the flop, holdings like A-x suited gain in value because they can improve to very big hands. Others — the kind that figure to leave you with top pair, big kicker when you catch part of the flop — can be as vulnerable as they are valuable in games with much narrower playing zones. In loose, lower-limit games, an ace on the board frequently extends the playing zone dramatically. It’s a pretty rare day when an opponent is holding a hand like K-3 and makes two pair because a trey jumps out of the deck on the river. But since many players in these games are prone to play any ace they are dealt, you’re never too sure which cards are safe. While it’s more likely that a board with an ace and all big cards is likely to give another player two pair, even unsequenced lower cards can help someone. This is particularly true when the majority of players take the flop. Any one of them who catches any part of it is likely to stick around for the duration. You can lose a chunk of change in these games with hands like A-K. You flop top pair with the best possible kicker, and the board looks like it didn’t help a soul. But wait. In loose, lower-limit games, the board might just help someone simply because he or she is prone to play any ace at all.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #16: I will manage the maniacs. THE

Kaizen OF POKER 119

seventeen. DID

YOU OVER- OR UNDERESTIMATE YOUR OPPONENTS?

Playing well means you assessed them properly. Needing improvement means you overor underestimated them.

Michelle Tomko and others have a tendency to put everyone on the nuts and fold good hands — possibly too often. She explains that this is the result of having taken so many bad beats. But as her game improves, her confidence level and good reads are improving as well. And being deferential does have merit. It’s important to remember that while you are sitting there winning, players are figuring out how to beat you. You must not underestimate anybody. Respect. Everyone deserves respect. Even the worst player can teach you something. You will not get the respect you occasionally require if you respect no one at the table. It’s an unwritten law of poker. Poker is the

120

great equalizer, and it’s the cards that do the equalizing. Poker is not a boxing match, where the better fighter can impose his will on the lesser. Every time a new card comes off the deck, the relative strength of the combatants can change.

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE YOUR OPPONENTS What’s your problem? You lose to players who you think are not playing as well as you. Yes, it’s true that players get lucky, and from time to time you will lose to a player who called a big raise only to hit an inside straight on the river. But even these situations can be countered if you take into account your chip stack and the other players. Yet most players do overestimate their own abilities, and underestimate their opponents. Even the worst player may have a hidden skill set or a moment of genius, and if you don’t allow for it, you will be left chipless, rubbing your head. And so, while profiling your opponents to get a handle on their weaknesses that you might exploit, be very careful not to underestimate everyone — especially if you haven’t been sitting at the game very long. I was watching an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen, where three chefs were competing in an elimination challenge. One of the competitor chefs had the opportunity to sabotage the player who he deemed to be the weakest competitor by removing any ingredient, but he did not take that opportunity. He did it in the guise of kindness, but everyone knew he was underestimating the competition, and his kindness was in fact an insult. His strategy was to defeat the third chef, who he deemed to be the tougher competition, so that he could be heads-up in the final round with the one who he deemed to be weak. What do you think happened? Of course! Karma happened. The “weak” competitor prevailed and won the whole competition. The insult to his abilities may have been just the fire he needed to drive him to victory. When I represented Phil Hellmuth for his book Play Poker Like the

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 121

Pros, I went with him to his publisher, HarperCollins, in New York, and we played a small exhibition tournament with the staff. There were almost 20 players, each putting up $20, and we played for several hours. Well, not many of the players were very good, and it did come down to Phil and me heads-up. I am very proud to say that Phil didn’t think of me as a top player, and was sure that if I won this tournament, I would do so based on luck. I remember what I consider the pivotal hand. I made a convincing big bet with Q-4 offsuit, no pair (what is known as air), and Phil took no time at all to show me his “signature” hand, pocket nines, as he threw them into the muck. I took the chip lead with that hand. He had played with me for a few hours but still did not know that I could bluff like that. He considers his strength to be his good read of other players. Well, Phil, I didn’t want you to get upset — particularly since I was trying to impress the publishers with your skill and not mine, so I shut up and collected my winnings when I got the last of your chips a few hands later. What’s your goal? Respect your opponents. For one thing, if you truly show them respect by, for example, folding a big hand to their bet, you set yourself up for winning a hand from them later. Don’t get so arrogant about your own skills that you miss recognizing the skills of your opponents. Don’t assume when you win it is because you are good, and when you lose it is because you are unlucky. Almost every single session that is lost can be accounted for logically, if you really look at the truth. If you had the nut straight made on the turn with a Q-T, but you lost to a full house on the river, you may be raging mad at your bad luck. But why did you call that tight player’s raise with Q-10 in the first place? That was where you went wrong. Reverse engineer the hand and see if you can explain what you did wrong before complaining about your bad beat. Almost every situation has a lesson in it for you. Don’t underestimate the fish and punish people who underestimate you.

122 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

WHY WOMEN OFTEN HAVE AN EDGE Women can have an edge because they are usually underrated by men, often played down to, and flirted with much of the time. Many men just don’t believe that women can play tough, aggressive poker. They also don’t believe most women will ever bluff. Many of the best women players take advantage of these opportunities by flirting back with their male admirers. Then they skewer them when they have the best of it. Women who are able to read men’s intentions — and most of the time, these intentions are embarrassingly obvious — can easily manipulate their male opponents into making foolish plays, and then take full advantage of the situation. When men see women as straightforward players who seldom ever bluff, who respond to their flirtatious charms, they are playing right into their hands. Some men won’t raise a woman out of some misguided sense of gallantry — or perhaps it’s merely a continuation of the flirting instinct — and, in so doing, deviate from the kind of play that wins the money. Call it what you will, but the rules of attraction are sometimes much stronger than the inclinations of poker. Whenever that happens — sometimes orchestrated by a female player, sometimes not — it’s generally the guy who winds up slinking away to lick his wounds. Michelle Tomko, a player to fear, reports that she gets away with a flush bluff at least twice each session. I love being underestimated. There are players who have seen me play marginal hands or make loose moves, or who have just seen me play badly, and think I am a fish or a maniac who may have gotten lucky once or twice. Sometimes a man may see me enter the room and say, “Here, Sheree, there is a seat open here.” I always smile and sit in that seat, and, almost inevitably, I run over those tables, taking extra relish in felting that man. In this case I say “man” quite deliberately, because rarely have I seen a woman openly insult other players that way. To me, this says a lot about the player who made the “friendly” invitation. It says to me that he isn’t very bright. He thinks I don’t know I’m THE

Kaizen OF POKER 123

being insulted. You don’t invite the pro to the table; you invite the fish! Brightness and cunning are key to being a good poker player. Playing by the book can go just so far. If you find yourself in that position, being invited to the table by someone who thinks you are a weak player, remember to check in with your confidence level before sitting down.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #17: I will neither over- or under-

estimate but will assess my opponents properly.

124 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

eighteen. DID YOU

BLUFF EFFECTIVELY? “We write our own destiny; we become what we do.” — taro gold

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

TIP: You have to start selling it early. You can’t wait for

the river. One night I was trying to get a guy off of his hand. I kept making bets, and he was stubbornly check-calling. The passive player may have had a little something, or he may have been on a draw. On the river, when he checked again, I bet more than half his stack. It was a big bet that he couldn’t call. He had to go all in with a huge hand (which I knew he didn’t have). If you want someone to call, make a bet that they can call. If you want someone to fold, make a bet that they can’t call. Here is another bluff. I was playing 2/5 NL at the Borgata. I bought in for the minimum $200. I raised in middle position with 3-3. The 125

aggressive player on the button re-raised. I decided to see the flop. The flop was A-A-J. I went all in. He had to fold. He had to think I had an ace. I was betting that he didn’t have one. Good chance, since A-A was on the flop. When you think someone is making a continuation bet (betting the flop just because they raised pre-flop) against you, just call them on the flop (float the flop). They worry about your call since they have nothing. They check to you on the turn, and you bet even though you may have nothing either. They fold, and you win. Bad players never bluff, bluff too much, or don’t bluff enough.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU BLUFF? HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU BLUFF? Many players wonder how often they should bluff. They worry whether they’re bluffing too often or not bluffing enough. From the casual conversations you overhear in poker rooms, some players seem to obsess about this. It’s almost as if they believe there is some optimal bluffing frequency they should know about but don’t. They wonder whether savvier opponents have tuned in to some strategy. They feel they’re missing the boat. The simple answer is there really is no optimum frequency. If you’re bluffing 8 percent of the time, or 10, or 12, it’s not really information that makes a difference in understanding how you’re doing as a bluffer. What does matter is when you bluff and who you bluff. Those two are related concepts. If you bluff at the wrong time, or you attempt to bluff players who never fold — unless their hands are absolutely hopeless and there are no cards to come — your bluffing will go to waste. And it doesn’t matter whether you bluff 8, 10, or 12 percent of the time. If you bluff at the wrong time, and you attempt to bluff the wrong players, it all goes for naught. Instead of looking for some abstract number as a guide to the 126 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

amount of time you should be bluffing, look at your results instead. But even this is tricky. Here’s why.

IF YOUR BLUFFS ARE SELDOM CALLED If your bluffs are never called, that’s not as good as you might think at first. Of course it means you’re winning each and every time you bluff, but it also means you are probably not bluffing enough. After all, if your bluffs are called only one time in four, and you bluffed three times today and won each of those pots, imagine what would happen if you had bluffed eight times. Twice you would have been called. In terms of limit poker, you would have lost one additional bet, for a total of two units over and above what you would have lost had you checked the river and lost to your opponent in a showdown. But on six of those occasions, you would have won the pot. And if we assume that each pot averaged six units, you would have a net win of 34 units (six winning bluffs times six units per pot equals 36 units, minus two additional units lost when you bluffed, were called, and lost). Instead, you had a perfect bluffing record, but you bluffed only three times, for a total of 18 units (three successful bluffs times six units per pot). The additional bluffing you did not carry out meant you left money on the table. If this were the case, it would mean you were missing out on bluffing opportunities. Naturally, the more you bluff, the more you run the risk of opponents calling you. Even so, you don’t have to win each and every time you bluff to be successful. You just have to find some optimal bluffing frequency that allows you to rake in all the additional chips you might currently be missing out on while not bluffing so often that you are seen as an inveterate bluffer. If this happens, or it seems like it’s about to happen — or even if you notice that you’re called more often than you were before you began to bluff a bit more — you can change strategies and bet for value whenever THE

Kaizen OF POKER 127

you have a hand that you think is better than your opponent’s. When opponents suspect you’re bluffing too often, you stand more of a chance of winning an additional bet when betting for value.

INDUCING BLUFFS If your opponents are prone to coming out betting any time you show the slightest sign of weakness by checking, you have a perfect opportunity to induce a bluff on their part. If you are first to act on the river, you can check. If your opponent is aggressive, he’ll probably bet in an attempt to take the pot away from you. This is a terrific play when you suspect your opponent is on a draw to a straight or a flush, but would fold if you were to bet into him when he failed to complete his hand. If he misses his draw, but you call when he bluffs at the pot, you gain a bet in the process. Presumably he would fold if you saw that his flush draw failed to materialize and you bet into him. If he has a big, hidden hand — perhaps he called all the way with a pair smaller than yours and made a set on the river — you will save a bet. If you had come out betting, he would have raised, and you would have had to make a crying call on the river. It’s a no-lose situation. You win an extra bet if you can induce him to bet on a weak hand. You also save a bet if he catches a miracle card that gives him a hidden hand that he is just itching to raise with.

ACTING TECHNIQUE “The mind is a powerful and mysterious force. It can make the best of the worst and the worst of the best.” — taro gold

Let’s say you’re at the river, and you’re interested in trying to take down 128 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

the pot with a bluff. You’re sure that if you can convince your opponent that the river card made your straight, he’ll fold. Instead of overacting or using Book of Tells reverse psychology, try thinking to yourself, “Excellent, that last card made my straight. Way to go!” Just think it hard enough to believe it yourself while you’re making your bet, while at the same time trying to have a flat poker face. Don’t overact. Just try to make it a real thought. If you have to look at something, look wherever you would normally look if you weren’t conscious of tells, and if that card really did make your hand. Perhaps you’ll look at your opponent’s chips. Perhaps you’ll look at the river card. Perhaps you’ll look at the TV. If you don’t know what you’d look at, then try to pay attention to yourself the next time the river card does complete your straight. Similarly, if you’re making a value bet on the river with the nuts, and you want your opponent to call, try thinking, “Please don’t call. Please don’t call. It would be really terrible for me if you’d call. Please, for heaven sakes, fold!” If your opponent is one who likes to study you before making a decision, you’ll find this technique will work like a charm. Just don’t do it every time. Next time you want that same player to call, try thinking, “Please call.” What a pleasure it will be when they do. TIP: Whenever you are asked a question, do not respond

with the truth. Say something that is beneficial to you and your image.

SELF-INVENTED TELLS

I remember my first Las Vegas tournament at the Mirage. I was at the final table with a man who was deciding whether to call my bet. He paused and stared at me. I looked him directly in the eye and gave him a flirty smile, what I would call a “sparkle.” He decided to call, and I won the pot with a big hand. A little later, I saw that I needed THE

Kaizen OF POKER 129

chips. I decided to bluff that player at a pivotal moment in the tournament. Again, I made a raise. Again, he gave me a stare. And again, I sparkled. The man decided to fold — never realizing that I was bluffing. That hand crippled the man’s chip stack, and caused him to be the next person eliminated from the final table. I went on to take second place, and received my first tax form for poker wins. Take note of people who examine you, and remember to use your own self-invented tells.

{zyx

IF YOU LOOK WEAK ON THE RIVER, SOMEONE WILL “BET AND TAKE IT” If everyone checks on the flop, it might be a sign that no one has a particularly strong hand. It might also mean that one opponent is checking a big hand to create an expensive trap on the turn. But if all your opponents check the turn, and the river card does not pair the board or produce a possible flush or straight card, chances are good that no one has a very strong hand. Professional poker players call this an abandoned pot. When you find yourself in this situation, you might just want to come out betting. Unless that river card gave an opponent two pair or better, or you’re confronting at least one opponent who is always going to call to “keep you honest,” a bet on your behalf stands a good chance of capturing the pot. It’s also always interesting to watch your opponents fold in turn, like a row of dominos tumbling down. Even though some of your more astute opponents will realize you’re probably stealing the pot, they usually won’t call you if they don’t have the goods. After all, the operative word here is “probably,” and since they’re never completely certain about the hand you’re holding, the vast majority of players will fold to a 130 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

bet. Every now and then you’ll find a tough, aggressive player who will raise your bluff with a bluff of his own. But that happens so infrequently that it’s usually not a consideration. If you find yourself up against an opponent capable of making this kind of play, I would recommend staying out of his way unless you really have a big hand, at which point I would assume you’ll re-raise the next time he tries this play against you.

MAKE A PLAY FOR ABANDONED POTS; IF YOU DON’T, SOMEONE ELSE WILL I talk about abandoned pots throughout this book because it’s an important concept. While much of the time, poker resembles a conflict between two gladiators, it’s also true that quite often there is no conflict at all. Each opponent’s actions seem to say, “Take the pot . . . please.” Whenever you can identify a pot just sitting there about to be abandoned, you need to step up and snatch it away from anyone else who may have the same intentions. Just the ability to do this once or twice a session can turn a break-even player into a winner. An abandoned pot is like finding a mobster bagman’s satchel full of unmarked bills in the backseat of a cab. When you see it, take it, and get out of town as quickly as possible. Remember, one of poker’s operative mottos: if the shoe fits, steal it!

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #18: I will use all of my skills

and knowledge to try to bluff effectively.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 131

nineteen. DID YOU

RECOGNIZE STRONG PLAYERS?

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

CHIP ENTITLEMENT Many pros won’t tell you that no one is entitled to your chips. They won’t tell you that because so many pros do feel entitled to your chips. If you’re better than they think, you can use this information to hurt them and to help yourself. If someone sitting to your left cold-calls — that is, puts in two bets without ever having put in one bet every time you raise — or if he limps whenever you limp, or raises whenever you limp, he probably has you targeted as a poor player. He thinks he’ll win your chips. If he is clearly working hard to isolate you, you must make it your business to tighten up your starting hands and strategize ways to trap him before he knows 132

that you’re on to him. If you surreptitiously study him, you’ll know when he’s going to bet or raise. You can then seize every opportunity to maximize the number of bets that he is going to place into the pots. If you’ve got him beat, be especially sure to bet the river. You can’t give one free card to the player who failed to respect you.

CALL THE ROCKS AND YOU’RE ON THE ROCKS There are some people you should never call when they raise. It’s good to be that person. But you don’t want to be too tight. If you do, you’ll be leaving money on the table that you could have won with some of the hands you probably folded. Too tight is no good, and neither is too loose. If you never lose the hands you play, you are certainly playing too tightly. So let that be your guide. It matters where you sit relative to aggressive, good players and their chips. In an ideal world, you want the tough, aggressive players along with any maniacs at the table on your right. This is so you can get out of the way of the good players, unless you have a very strong hand. Raise the maniac with any reasonable hand, so that you can play heads-up against him. You want the tight, cautious, conservative players on your left, so you can bet them out of the pot. They don’t represent all that much of a threat to you, since they tend to raise infrequently, if at all. If you happen to have an aggressive player on your left, you have to limit the number of hands you play. When you have a good hand, though, you can let your aggressive tablemate do your betting for you; you may be able to trap him for a lot of chips by hand’s end.

DON’T GET COCKY Even good players make mistakes. Watch out for them and try not to make them. THE

Kaizen OF POKER 133

I recently played in a home tournament. It was around a large rectangular dining-room table, and the deal rotated. There were some excellent players in the game as well as one or two novices. I was determined to win, and I did, but I have to admit to at least one big mistake. I had K-9 in the big blind. There was no pre-flop raise. The little blind, Marc, was an excellent player. The new player had the button. The flop was 8-8-2. No one bet. The turn brought a king, and I was pretty certain I had the best hand, but I was crafty and checked after Marc. Everyone checked. The river was a little card, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. Marc bet out 1,600 tournament chips. I called, and so did the novice on the button. Marc turned over A-5 of spades. He had made a flush! The novice on the button had A-K. I was in last place! I did not see that the river had completed a possible flush. In my defense, if Daniel Negreanu can do it, so can I, but I have since reinforced many lessons from that hand, namely, not to get sloppy, not to underestimate anyone, and to always play my A game.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #19: I will recognize

and respect strong players.

134 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

twenty. DID YOU

RECOGNIZE WEAK PLAYERS?

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

Any time you have someone’s number, you should try to sit to his left. This is especially true if he has a big stack, because the money flows left. Poker expert Mike Caro first pointed out that money flows clockwise around a table. If you could sit on the ceiling and watch the game, you’d see a time-lapse photography swirl as the money moves in that direction. So, if you can sit to the left of a player with a big stack of money, count your blessings; some of it will probably end up being yours.

YOU CAN BEAT BAD PLAYERS AND YOU CAN BLUFF GOOD PLAYERS Weak players make two mistakes above all others. First, they call too 135

often. Second, they don’t fold often enough. Most recreational players are eager to play poker when they visit a card room. They don’t venture out to the casino in anticipation of folding hand after hand. Playing too many hands generally involves starting out with cards that probably shouldn’t be played. That error is compounded when players stick around with long-shot draws that have no chance of winning. These players have come to play, and they sleep very well, thank you, knowing that no one is going to bluff them out of a pot. But that’s not what good poker is all about. Playing poker to win can be boring, because most of the time you’ll be dealt a hand you really don’t want to, or shouldn’t, play. Good play involves throwing most of the hands you’re dealt face down in the muck. All of the good players do that most of the time. On those occasions when they don’t, there are two important conditions. Are they in a short-handed game, where more risk-taking is required and more hands must be played? Are they at a table full of passive players who seldom bluff and who raise infrequently? With this kind of situation, the pro knows he can play more speculative hands with little chance of being raised. He can either complete a big hand with assurance that his opponents will call him all the way to the bitter end, or he can release his hand at the first sign that an opponent has a better hand than he does. He’ll deviate from this pattern of play only rarely, and usually when he is confronting a passive opponent who is even willing to throw good, but not great, hands away in the face of a bet or a raise. When the pro is facing this kind of opponent, the cards he holds have no meaning whatsoever. The only thing that does matter is how often he can bet or raise with a reasonable assurance that his adversary will release his hand in the face of unmitigated aggression. Most opponents call too much and stay in the pot far too long with weak hands. They can be beaten by betting for value, not by bluffing. Most of the time, when you bet, they’re going to call. Therefore, don’t bluff, but bet when you think you have the best of it, secure in the knowledge that your opponent is very likely to call you with a lesser hand.

136 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

BAD BEATS CAN BE YOUR BEST FRIENDS You’re never happy to see your pocket pair of aces run down at the river by someone who called your raise with a measly 6-4 offsuit. That player was very lucky when his two pair held up and beat you out of a big pot. It’s no fun, either, when you flop a set and lose to two running cards that give an opponent a flush or a straight. This is particularly true when your opponent lacks any understanding of odds and outs and should not have been in the pot with you to begin with. Still, there is a nice shiny silver lining to bad beats. A bad beat is the handwriting on the wall telling you that there are others in the game who play horribly. They are continuing to call your bets against all odds — or, at least, against most of the odds. You’ll remember when they catch two- and three-outers to beat you. But you don’t even realize it when they call the flop, call the turn, and maybe even call a bet on the river, too, only to muck their pathetic holdings when you show yours down. They couldn’t beat the hand you started with, and never even caught up. And you know what? They’ll do that a lot more often than they will run you down. If you never had a bad beat, that would be a sign that you’re playing in a game with really skilled players. They know all the odds and outs and don’t take risks unless their investment is offset by a positive, longterm expectation. Expert players might be terrific to include in your poker discussion group, because you’ll probably learn a lot from them, but they are not really the ones you want to play against on a daily basis. When you play poker, you hope to find a table with a few players who always take the worst of it with long odds, get lucky just enough to ensure they keep coming back for more, and continue to contribute to your bankroll and success as a poker player.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 137

CALLING STATIONS ARE YOUR CHIP SOURCE When you first sit down, fold almost everything. Watch who plays the most hands. Chances are, this will be your chip source. The player who plays the most hands will win the most pots, but will also lose the most pots, and the most money, too. Unless someone is getting a miraculous streak of good cards, an opponent who plays too many hands is entering many pots with very weak holdings, and you can take her money by betting your good hands for value with the anticipation that she will call and you will win.

DEAD MONEY

Dead money is money that goes into the pot without much of a chance to win. The money posted by the blinds is often dead money. When a pot contains extra blinds from returning players who are posting behind the button, there is lots of extra dead money in the pot. Some players, particularly novices and calling stations, are unaware of what is needed to win a pot. That’s why those players themselves are sometimes referred to as “dead money” by top-notch tournament players and professionals. Although novices and calling stations are capable of winning hands, most of the money they place into the pot is dead money. If you’re sharp, you’ll seize opportunities to collect it, and no one will be the wiser.

{zyx

138 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

IT’S ONLY MONEY Just before being fired, Apprentice contestant Alex pointed out it’s hard to hurt someone who has nothing to lose. In a cash game, or in a tournament, be very careful about isolating someone who doesn’t care about chips or money. Certainly, you will not be able to bluff such a player. They’ll call you, and most likely beat you, if you’re on a bluff. If you have a huge stack and probably have them beat, and you make a play at them, do expect them to call with any two cards. If their winning would hurt you, then avoid them. On the other hand, your bluff or your better hand can beat anyone. Alex was fired. TIP: Weak players do something fairly consistently. They

act like they are going to call when, if the bet is big enough, there is no way they will call; they just don’t want you to bet. When somebody reaches for his chips as if to say he will call anything, but then he checks, put out a big bet with confidence. That person will almost certainly fold. If you are playing against this player in a small-limit game, they make the same maneuver to try to keep you from betting, usually because they are on a draw and hoping to get to the river for free. And so they will call the small-limit amount until the river. On the river, they may pull the maneuver yet again, but this time, if they missed, and you bet, they will fold.

STEP IT UP When new players start winning a few sessions in a row, they begin to overestimate their own playing ability. Many of them think, after they’ve read the basic books, that with their newfound knowledge of tells and THE

Kaizen OF POKER 139

good starting hands, they are now expert players. They look at players who take down pots with 6y8y as horrible players. They don’t realize how important it is to learn how to pull off a great bluff, especially when the cards are running bad. They even start ranting at the table, saying things like, “You called my raise with a Kx4x?” Such players will never experience the elation of making a call on the turn with nothing but a pretend flush draw. Learning how to bluff with impunity is imperative!

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #20: I will recognize and outplay weak players.

140 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

twenty-one. DID YOU

DEFEND YOUR BIG AND LITTLE BLINDS?

“Know the difference between instinct and habit. Trust your instincts — question your habits.” — taro gold

Playing well means you did not. Needing improvement means you did.

BLIND AMBITION Many players are unsure about how to play their blinds. When you’re in early position, you’re at a big disadvantage because you have to act first. When you act first, you don’t have any idea about the real or purported strength of anyone else’s hands. Unless you can pick up some strong visual clues about what your opponents might do when it’s their turn to act, you are truly flying blind. As a result, early to act means greater selectivity about the hands you choose to play. Although the blinds do have the advantage of seeing everyone else act first before the flop, this small edge is more than offset because they are forced to wager money without regard to the strength 141

of their hands. They will also have the disadvantage of having to act first on each round of betting. The small blind is in a worse position than the big blind. In limit hold’em, or when the raise is small, the big blind can frequently call raises with mediocre hands because it will cost him less than the small blind to do so. In effect, he is getting better odds to make this call. The small blind cannot be as free with his money. His cost to call a raise is higher, and that reduces the odds he is offered by the pot.

BLIND ODDS Here’s how it works: If anyone other than the small blind raises, the big blind will get a minimum of 3.5-to-1 to call. This is because there will be one small bet that he posted, two small bets from the raiser, and one-half of a small bet from the small blind. If there are more players involved in the hand, then the big blind will be offered even greater odds. But the small blind has to act before the big blind, and will be required to invest an additional 1.5 small bets to call the initial raise. He also has to do so without knowing what the big blind will do. If the big blind folds, then the small blind has odds of 3.5-to-1.5, or 2.3-to-1. These odds are not nearly as good as those given to the big blind. If the big blind calls after the small blind, then the small blind will have gotten odds of 3-to-1. While that might not seem much worse than the big blind’s odds, consider this: by calling, the small blind guarantees that the big blind receives odds of 5-to-1 to see the flop. What does all this mean in the heat of battle? Even if you are not prone to work out the pot odds, bear in mind that you need to have a much stronger hand to call a raise from the small blind than you do when you’re the big blind. It’s all a question of value for money, and the big blind gets a better price to see flops than the small blind does.

142 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

CHECK-RAISING FROM THE BLIND When you are in the blind, you have very few strategic options at your disposal. Check-raising is probably the most effective tactical ploy you can bring to bear against aggressive opponents who will bet whenever you check. Employ this strategy whenever you think you have the best hand or when you want to get more money into the pot. Against more passive opponents, you can take the opposite tack and bet into them. But take heed: You may have to fire twice in order to get results. If you bet and are called, unless you want to give up your bluff and probably surrender the pot, you have to be prepared to come out betting the turn, and quite possibly the river, too.

DEFENDING YOUR BLINDS This is the opposite side of the coin. When you’re the one facing a raise from a late-position player who’s first to enter the pot, you have to decide whether to fold, call (and hope for the best on the flop), or play back at him by re-raising. When you’re in this position, here’s what you need to consider: •

If you have the best hand, consider re-raising. If you’re in the small blind, this is a particularly good idea, because you can force the big blind to commit two bets to the pot in order to continue playing. If you can eliminate the big blind, you accomplish two objectives: You get to play the pot heads-up against the raiser, who may not have much of a hand at all. And you’ve succeeded in getting some dead money in the pot. Raising from the big blind forces your opponents to put more money into the pot, too. But, as long as it’s only one additional bet, he’ll call your raise every time. As a practical matter, the edge you gain is that if the blind thief has a weak hand, he’s likely to fold to a bet THE

Kaizen OF POKER 143

on the flop. Although he correctly called your raise because the price was right, your aggression will probably convince him to release his hand if the flop does not fit. •

If your opponent habitually raises in these situations, you won’t need much of a reason or much of a hand to play back at him. But if he seldom practices this kind of larceny, you can probably credit him with a hand and release all but the best of yours.

•

If your adversary is a good player, you will be confronting him for the remainder of the hand out of position. You will have to act first, and if you check, he’ll probably bet. If you bet, he’s likely to raise. But you won’t know what he’s going to do with any degree of certainty, and that precludes you from any really deceptive, tricky maneuvers as a consequence. On the other hand, if you can outplay your opponent, you can use that skill to negate his positional advantage. But please don’t make the mistake of underestimating opponents. While we all like to think we can outplay the opposition, having a positional disadvantage is like a horse giving up weight in a race. It tends to equalize differences at best while, at worst, the positional advantage your seemingly pedestrian opponent has may be just enough to tip the scales in his favor.

STEALING BLINDS If you’re in one of the later positions, and everyone has folded, don’t ever call. Decide instead whether to fold or to raise. There’s no formula you can follow to come up with the right decision. Consider these factors when deciding which road to choose: •

While you can never know for sure what your opponents in the

144 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

blinds were dealt, any ace is likely to be good. Any king stands a good chance of being the best hand, too. A pair is a monster against two random cards, but smallish suited connectors, such as 7{6{, which may look good against a big field for one bet, are decided dogs in a short-handed situation. Short-handed, the edge goes to the big cards, and it stays with the big cards regardless of the smaller card configurations. For example, AxKzis a 67-33 percent favorite against 8y3{, and the latter is a hand no one ever gets excited about. But against 8y7y, one of those tony suited connectors that many players adore, AxKz is still a 58-42 percent favorite. While it’s not quite the favorite that it is against the trashy 8-3, it’s still a big favorite, and the fact that 8-7 is both suited and connected lends little value to the hand. •

Some players never relinquish their blinds. Well, almost never. Against players like this, you have very little bluffing equity, and you’ll have to bet your hand for value if you decide to come in for a raise. Nevertheless, heads-up, any hand containing an ace is one that can be bet for value, since it figures to be the best hand right now. Even though loose players — the kind who defend their blinds too frequently — are impossible to bluff, they give up so much equity through poor play that betting even otherwise mediocre hands for value has merit against them.

•

Are your adversaries tricky and aggressive? Aggressive, sophisticated players may well realize that you don’t need much of an edge to raise their blinds from late position. They also might be aggressive enough to risk a re-raise, based on the assumption that you are probably raising with a less-than-premium hand. While your opponent in the blind has no idea whether you’re holding A-A or A-4, he’s predicating his re-raise on the fact THE

Kaizen OF POKER 145

that you are more likely to be raising with a lone ace in your hand than with a pair of them. If the tricky, aggressive player is in the small blind, he knows that by re-raising he may be able to drop the big blind, and possibly get you to release your hand if you raised with a weak holding. If you peg your opponents as tough, tricky, and aggressive — fully capable of playing back at you — you should try to steal the blind with your good hands, not your marginal holdings. •

Predictable opponents are easy to play against; tough, tricky ones are not. When your predictable opponent check-raises, you are beaten. When that tough, tricky opponent check-raises, you are in a guessing game of sorts, and you will seldom be sure of the correct line of play to pursue. Even if your opponent is not especially tricky, but simply plays well, attempted steals have less equity. This is because good opponents will get out of the way with their lesser hands, play back at you with their good ones, and bluff with just about the right frequency to defeat any attempts on your part to react to them.

•

If you haven’t attempted to steal the blinds since the Carter administration, your opponents are more likely to give you credit for a good hand and fold to your raise. On the other hand, if you’ve raised quite a bit lately — and it doesn’t matter one whit whether those raises were because you were dealt a spate of hands like A-A, K-K, or Q-Q, or you were robbing them blind with 3-2, 7-2, and 9-3 — any time your opponents think you may be taking advantage of them, they are more likely to call or even to re-raise. No one likes to be bullied, especially poker players. Eventually even the most timid of opponents will straighten up and take a stand. The message here is clear. If you’ve done a lot of blind-stealing lately, slow

146 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

down and save your raises for really good hands; then hope they decide to stand up and call you.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #21: I will not automatically

defend my big and little blinds.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 147

twenty-two. DID

YOU GET MARRIED TO HANDS?

Playing well means you did not. Needing improvement means you did.

Getting married to your cards: While it’s okay to fall in love with your hand, please remember that discretion is the better part of valor. You don’t have to marry the hand with which you find yourself infatuated. Pocket aces are beautiful pre-flop, but when the flop comes 2-2-5 and there are two other players raising and re-raising, one of them almost definitely has a deuce. The first time you fold aces may feel tragic and bittersweet, but consider it your bar mitzvah into poker adulthood. You’ll be thrilled when you calculate how much you saved by throwing away big hands — even if on occasion you threw away kings and someone shows you a bluff. One time I was in a satellite tournament to a $5,000 main event. We were getting close to the bubble and, as I had been carefully monitoring 148

the average chip count, I figured I had enough chips left to win myself a seat. I was dealt K-K. By the time the action got to me, two people were all in and one was the tightest player at the table. I figured for sure he had to have A-A to be all in. I showed my K-K and folded. Yes, my read was correct. The tight player had A-A, and he took out the other guy who was all in. The whole room was talking about me folding K-K preflop. One guy at my table argued with me. He said, “It is never correct to fold K-K pre-flop. Never!” Well, I got my seat in the big event. But that brings me to my next story . . . I actually have one more story about being dealt K-K. I was playing 1/2 at a local poker room. Based on pre-flop raising and re-raising, I ended up heads-up with a tight player who I put on K-K or A-A. He and I both checked when an A was on the flop. I felt pretty certain that he had K-K, just like I did. On the river, he bet $60, and as I called, I said, “I’m pretty sure we have the same hand.” Yup. He had K-K, too. We chopped up the pot. If I was so sure of my read, why didn’t I go all in? I didn’t have enough chips to get him to fold at that point, and he would have called. So there was no point in taking a risk, just in case I was wrong.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #22: I will not get married to hands.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 149

twenty-three. DID

YOU PLAY WITH HOPE OR SKILL? “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” — taro gold

Playing well means you played with skill. Needing improvement means you played with hope.

TIP: Play as if your mentor is watching over your

shoulder — not your guardian angels (although I hope they are there, too). Deciding what to do? Think, “What would Lou Krieger do?”

YOU’RE NOT A GOOD PLAYER UNLESS YOU’RE WINNING One can play well and lose in the short run, but over time . . . good players beat bad players. That’s just the way it is. Poker is a funny game. If a rank amateur were to sit down with one of the legends of the game and play one hand of poker, anything could happen, and the amateur 150

would stand an even chance of coming out ahead in that confrontation. But if they were to play for a long time — a day, a week, a month, a year, or even a lifetime — skill would favor the legend, and the reason is simple. He’d win far more money with his good hands and lose much less with his poor ones than our amateur. And the longer they played, the more you could be certain the amateur would be ground down by the skilled professional. This doesn’t happen in other endeavors. Even a single hole of golf against a top touring pro would show most of us up as complete duffers, and we would have no chance at all. Wanna take a cut at a major league fastball? Don’t waste your time. Whether we took one swing or spent the next month flailing away in the batter’s box, our chances of success would be slim. And it only gets worse from there. If you like really slim chances, spend one round in the ring with a professional boxer, or play a game of chess with a grandmaster. You’ll have no chance in either endeavor, although in chess, only your pride figures to take a beating. But things are different in poker, and it’s these illusions and occasional victories that keep poor poker players deciding to play again and again. Even the very worst players manage to win on occasion, and sometimes the better player is just not on his or her game and plays down to, or even below, the level of his opponents. But over the long haul, if you’re not winning, you’re not a good player. You might be a good player against a different set of opponents, but unless you can regularly beat the game you’re playing in, you’ll either need to improve your chops or find a softer game, usually at lower betting limits.

SOMETIMES EVEN HANDS LIKE TOP PAIR, TOP KICKER ARE VULNERABLE . . . Here’s an example. Suppose you’re playing 2/5 NL and have been dealt A-Q in the big blind. Someone raises, and you call, along with a few other players. The flop is Q-J-T, and, for the sake of this example, I’ll THE

Kaizen OF POKER 151

assume the suits are irrelevant and the possibilities of a flush are nonexistent. With your cards and this flop, how do you like your hand? The upside is that you’ve flopped top pair with top kicker, and that combination wins plenty of hold’em confrontations. But there’s a dark cloud gathering, too. The three cards that flopped were all in the playing zone — that area where many other active players are likely to have holdings. With a sequenced flop of high cards coming on the heels of a raise, it’s entirely possible that your top-pair, top-kicker combination is already a big underdog. Even if you’re not losing the race right now, there are rafts of turn cards that can kill you. The raiser is far ahead of you if he’s holding pocket aces, pocket kings, or A-K. He also could have raised with pocket queens, jacks, or tens, and flopped a set. Even if he raised with a modest pair of nines, he’s got a few outs to beat you. And if anyone called the initial raise with a hand like Q-J or J-T, they’re ahead of you too. You’d love to see a king jump out of the deck on the turn, since it’s the only perfectly safe card you can catch. But it has a downside, too. Anyone with as little as a naked ace would chop the pot with you. An ace on the turn gives you two pair, but it kills you if any of your opponents were in the hand with a pair of kings or a hand like K-T. Even a queen would be a mixed blessing — the trip queens you’d make might already be bested if any of your adversaries had flopped a straight or a set. You’re in trouble, dude. It’s about as bad as things could be, considering that you flopped the usually joy-provoking top pair, top kicker.

. . . SOMETIMES THEY LOOK DOWNRIGHT UNBEATABLE But let’s look at a somewhat different set of circumstances. All the players are the same, and you’re still holding A-Q. This time the flop is Q-7-2, and once again we’ll assume that suits are irrelevant. Now top pair, top kicker looks a lot sweeter. You’re still running behind the pre-flop raiser. If he has a pair of aces or kings, you’re not at all in jeopardy to much 152 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

else. Anyone who called the raise before the flop with a pair smaller than queens — or with connectors like A-K, K-Q, Q-J, J-T, or other generally playable hands — is an underdog and likely to throw their hand away, leaving you and the pre-flop raiser to duel it out heads-up. Sure, you could be skewered if someone was playing Q-7, Q-2, or even 7-2, but most sane players are going to avoid those hands in a 2/5 NL game. Your only real danger is if one of your opponents flopped a set of sevens or deuces. However, by the time you arrive at the conclusion that he might have three-of-a-kind, it will have cost you some chips, and there’s really not much that can be done about it. Whenever an opponent flops a set on a safe-looking board, it will cost you some chips before you realize just how good a hand he might be holding. Still, this scenario is a lot safer for you than the previous one, because the board was not coordinated, and two of the three cards that flopped were far outside of the playing zone.

POCKET JACKS ARE A DILEMMA If you’re holding a pair of queens, kings, or aces, or A-K, you can go ahead and re-raise. But you’re better off folding all other hands when facing a raise, or calling to see a flop and trying to flop a set. If you’re holding a pair of jacks, you’ve got a hand on the cusp. The flop will contain a card bigger than a jack about half the time. Even if you have the best hand right now, a pair of jacks is vulnerable against a raise. In a no-limit game or in a tournament, you’re really rolling the dice when confronting a raise with a pair of jacks. Of course, if you’re short stacked and facing elimination in short order anyway, making a stand with a pair of jacks is probably the best thing you can do. That pair of jacks will most likely be the best hand you’ll be dealt before you’re forced to play a couple of random cards from one of the blinds. At that point in a tournament, you have run almost completely out of options. You can’t sit around and wait for a THE

Kaizen OF POKER 153

better hand; you’re not likely to be dealt a bigger one in the near future. You can’t bluff with a lesser hand, because your short stack size means someone is likely to call you regardless of their holdings. When your back is to the wall, and you’re completely out of running room, you have no choice. Push all your chips into the center of the table and hope. Hope, as I have pointed out earlier in this book, spells the death of many poker players. In this case, you’ve no other options available to you. When you enter a poker room, you may want to heed the words of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, written 700 years ago: “All hope abandon, ye who enter here.” TIP: Don’t play hunches. Don’t fall in love with stupid

hands like 9-4 or 8-10. Release your “favorite hand” if someone raises — even if they are bluffing. Don’t have a favorite hand, unless it is pocket aces, wellplayed and scooping a big pot. TIP: Do not chase down flushes, open-ended straights,

or — gasp — inside straights. Only draw to the nuts, and only when you have the proper odds.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #23: I will play with skill and not hope.

154 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

twenty-four. DID

“Listen more than you speak.” — taro gold

THE TALK AT THE TABLE, INCLUDING YOUR OWN, HELP OR HURT YOU?

“As force begets resistance, dialogue begets assistance.” — taro gold

Playing well means the talk helped you. Needing improvement means the talk led you to make bad decisions.

“First they ignore you; then they laugh at you; then they fight you; then you win.” — mahatma gandhi (I didn’t know Gandhi played poker!)

DON’T TIP YOUR HAND

Unless you’re a super pro, don’t ever show a hand that hasn’t been called. If someone asks what you had, say the opposite of the truth, or say something like, “What do you think I had?” Some people like to say, “I can’t recall.”

{zyx

155

TRUTH OR DARE When a guy says to you, “Fold, I’ll show you,” half the time he’ll show you the bluff! Double whammy! It’ll feel like he stole your pot and hit you in the stomach. Pay attention not to what you hear, but to what you see. Know that people often speak the opposite of the truth. A good poker player will tell you whatever will work to his own advantage. Bad players don’t need to tell you what they have; it’s obvious. It’s worth noting that it’s far more likely that a male player would lie about a hand before showing a bluff than a woman, but a woman once lied to me, causing me to fold the best hand, and then her bluff flipped up by accident! Some people trash talk and give themselves away. For example, I heard a man at the table bet and then say to the other guy who paused, “Are you on a flush draw?” I knew at that moment that the guy himself was on a flush draw and, when he made his flush, I saw I was right. Some people trash talk and can get people to call them when they have the nuts. It’s a skill, but most people shouldn’t do it. It’s usually a mistake. And it is bad etiquette to try to win by putting other players on tilt with smarmy moves. There are better ways to win. .

OBVIOUS TILT People tell you when they’re on tilt — just in case you didn’t happen to notice. Take note of someone who raises right after they took a beat, or one who says, “This is a tilt raise.” Players handle their bad beats very differently. Some players, when they lose a hand they feel they should have won, tuck their tails between their legs and whimper away like a puppy dog. Others take the opposite tack and tend to come out raising in a flagrant attempt to get themselves even immediately — each and every time they lose a pot. Some players will only say they’re on tilt because they’re not. Some players will tell you they’re on tilt as an excuse to play

156 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

2-4 offsuit to the river. Once you get a fix on which way your opponents tend to go, you can use it to your advantage time and time again.

DON’T EDUCATE When an obvious newbie sits down at the table and asks, “How much can I bet?” or “What’s a chop?” all of the good players at the table will keep the information to themselves and rush to exploit it. The second-best players will exchange knowledgeable winks at each other, silently communicating that the new person will surely walk away chipless. The least skillful players at the table will start complaining, “You played jack three in middle position; what are you, a moron?” Another slightly better player will invariably chastise, “Don’t educate the players at the table.” Everyone will pray the newbie doesn’t take offense and run away. Anyone who does more than take in the information about everyone and act accordingly is playing less than great poker. Don’t tap on the aquarium walls; if you do, those metaphorical fish at the table will likely take notice and dart off in some other direction.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #24: I will strive to let the

talk at the table help and not hurt me.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 157

twenty-five. WERE

YOU ONE OF THE EXPERTS, INTERMEDIATES, OR A FISH?

Playing well means you were one of the experts. Needing improvement means you were the fish.

EVEN GOOD PLAYERS ARE BAD WHEN THEY’RE TOO CONSISTENT One player once said this about my play: “You can’t put her on a hand because she mixes it up.” That’s a great compliment. Another poker compliment is when you are unwelcome at a poker table — even though you just bathed. When opponents fear you, when they can’t read you or deduce your hand in any way, and they’d rather have another opponent, that’s a big advantage. When players are apprehensive about your skills, they’re going to play differently against you, and usually they’ll make some errors in judgment when they do. This amounts to a sizeable edge. And how do you achieve this level of skill? The secret is to play by the book most of the time, but not always. 158

Some players never play by the book, because they’ve never read one. As a consequence, they really have little idea of how to play in various common situations. Others play by the book so exclusively that reading their play is like following a recipe. You can almost see their hand by virtue of the fact their play doesn’t vary, and what they do in one situation today, they’ll repeat every time that situation arises. You don’t have to vary by-the-book play all that often to plant the seeds of doubt in the minds of your opponents. Just make sure they are observant enough to recall what you do. Then, once a session or so, provide variability in your game to create confusion on their part. Go ahead and raise with your flush draw every now and then. If you make your hand and show it down, your opponents will think you’re much more aggressive than you are. If you convey the impression of very tight play, don’t do anything to disturb it. It’s a license to bluff. Dan Harrington, who won the World Series of Poker in 1995 and made the final table in 2003 and 2004, is known as “Action Dan.” This is a tongue-in-cheek nickname that’s been given to him because his image is that of a very tight player. But in the 2004 WSOP, a hand came up where Josh Arieh bet, eventual winner Greg Raymer raised, and Harrington re-raised. Both Raymer and Arieh had shown a willingness to gamble a bit at the final table and call bets and raises from other players. But when Action Dan raised, both threw their hands away without much hesitation — testimony to Harrington’s reputation for only betting when he has the goods. Imagine their surprise when they viewed the event on television and learned that Harrington stole a big pot right out from under their noses. Only Harrington could have pulled this off. The same raise from another player would have engendered at least one call, and possibly two. But Action Dan had long established his reputation as a tight player, and made his opponents pay because of it. I discovered a tight player making moves, such as betting $60 dollars on the river with air and then showing me the bluff, and now he can’t beat me. THE

Kaizen OF POKER 159

WHAT SPORT IS BOTH THE SAME AS AND THE OPPOSITE OF POKER?

Bowling. In bowling, once you learn how to achieve a strike, it is your aim to be as consistent as possible to achieve that strike again. When you place your bet, it is good to be that consistent. But in everything else you do at the poker table, your aim is to be inconsistent, so that no one can get a read on you.

{zyx

YOU SHOULD HAVE SEVERAL GOOD REASONS FOR EVERY DECISION Have as many reasons as possible. And they need to be rational. Having a hunch doesn’t count. Neither does some vague feeling that the cards were due. Cards are never due. They don’t respond to hunches. They are inanimate objects made of plastic with no intelligence or magical powers built into them. Cards are as dumb as dumb can be. Even a truckload of turnips looks like a Mensa convention compared to the cards at the poker table. Every pro knows this, so don’t you forget it.

LEARN WHICH VOICE IN YOUR HEAD IS THE MOST RELIABLE AND LISTEN TO IT Don’t be afraid to tune out the mental noise that you know in your heart of hearts gives you bad information. Ignore all those false prophets rattling around inside your head. When you do this, you are almost guaranteed to be playing winning poker. 160 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

TIP: “Never let anyone know you know what they are

up to.”

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #25: I will strive to be one

of the experts at the table and not the fish.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 161

twenty-six. DID

YOU PLAY HANDS CORRECTLY IN POSITION?

“Be concerned less with position than being worthy of position. Be concerned less with people knowing you than developing qualities worth knowing.” — confucius

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

POSITION, POSITION, POSITION You know that old real estate saw: the three most important concerns about buying a house are location, location, and location. Well, poker’s no different. Location is important there, too. Only instead of calling it location, poker players refer to it as position. As Mike Sexton said about hold’em on television’s popular World Poker Tour, “It takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master.” A button goes around the felt in clockwise rotation, moving with each new deal. This gives each player in turn a chance to act last, thereby playing the best position. It also gives him a chance to play the worst position by acting first. Because poker is very much a game of position, rotating 162

is very important. It keeps the game fair. And, although it’s given lip service, that’s the first tenet that most poker teachers understate when teaching the game. Position in the betting order is so important that some hands worth a raise in late position should be folded quickly early in the betting order. After all, when you are forced to act early, you have no indication how many opponents plan to enter the pot with you. And no indication whether any of them will represent a big hand by raising when it’s their turn to act.

GOOD POSITION When players talk about good position, they are usually referring to the advantages that accrue from acting last. Acting last gives you an opportunity to see what your opponents do before you have to decide whether you’re willing to commit any money to the pot. You have some idea about the real or purported strength of their hand. When you act first, you are shooting in the dark. You don’t know if your bet will cause all your opponents to fold, in which case you win the pot. It might also trigger a raise from someone who acts after you do and who has a big hand. You might even be raised by someone who figures you don’t have a hand at all. Will his raise cause you to fold so he can win the pot? There are two times when it’s beneficial to act first. One is when you plan to bluff. Poker players are a skeptical bunch. When you bet from late or last position, after every one else has checked, there’s a natural tendency for your opponents to think you’re trying to steal the pot. So, one or more of them might call to keep you honest. Another time acting first is beneficial is when you have a powerful hand and are planning to check-raise. Of course, you should be certain that one of your opponents — preferably, the player to your immediate left — will bet if you check. If you check, and his bet attracts one or more callers, you can now check-raise and trap all of those callers for the THE

Kaizen OF POKER 163

amount of your raise — if they dare — or isolate a single targeted player, or take down a big pot. But before you check-raise, two conditions have to be present. You have to have a very strong hand, and you have to believe that someone will bet. After all, it does you no good if you check, and your opponents all check behind you. When that happens, rather than gaining an advantage, building a pot, or taking one down, you’ll lose the money you could have made, let too many players see the flop, and give all of your opponents a free card in the process. But remember, it does you no good when you check-raise into a stronger hand than yours!

POSITION IS CRITICAL TO WINNING POKER Position is so important that there are starting hands you can raise with when you’re last to act that should be thrown away if you’re in early position. Suppose you’re dealt a pocket pair of fives or a hand like A-9 or A-T. They’re better than average hands, though not nearly in the same league as a pair of kings or aces. If you’re last to act, or next to last — players refer to this as being in the cutoff seat — the action you take with hands like these will be based on how your opponents have played. If everyone has folded and the blinds are your only potential opponents, you probably have a better hand than either of them. After all, they each have random hands, and a pair of fives or a hand like A-9 or A-T figures to be better than average. If you’re following a prescription for winning poker by playing selectively and aggressively, this is the time to raise. Your opponents might fold, but even if they don’t, you figure to have the best of it right now. It’s always a good thing when your opponents call with lesser hands. But what do you do if the pot is raised before it’s your turn to act? If you examine your opponent’s raising standards, chances are he will look for a hand that’s bigger than a pair of fives or A-T before raising. A 164 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

typical player probably has at least a pair of nines or A-J. If you decide to call, you’re doing so with a lesser hand. That’s not a good position to put yourself in. Not only are you the underdog right now, but the cost to enter the pot is double what it was before your opponent’s raise. And if you’re playing no limit, the cost might be a lot more than double the opening bet. Most no-limit players will make a “standard” raise of three to four times the blind. In a no-limit game, your standards for calling a raise — or re-raising once someone else has raised, before it’s your turn to act — need to be elevated to overcome the high cost of competing. If you are going to call a raise, or make it three bets to go in a no-limit game, you ought to be darn sure you are the favorite in this hand. Many players seem dismayed when they have to release a hand such as 5-5 or A-T in the face of a raise. After all, they were looking forward to playing it. But when you play poker, money saved is just as valuable as money won. Throwing away a vulnerable hand saves money you will probably lose. This is because you are confronting an opponent whose hand figures to be stronger than yours. Acting last, or in late position, has saved you money by providing you with information. You used it to make a more informed decision. If you played your pocket pair of fives in early position, where you had little or no information about the real or purported strength of your opponent’s hand, and then had to deal with a raise behind you, chances are you would be swimming upstream. Poker is a game of incomplete information, to be sure, and the information you receive when you act last, or in late position, is usually a lot better than what’s at your disposal when you’re flying blind. This is because you have the benefit of knowing what course of action your opponents have chosen. When you have to act early in the betting order, you’re forced to consider the strength of your own hand in a vacuum. But poker is not a game of absolute values; it’s a game of relative values. You can win some hands with ace-high, while others will take a full house or better to capture the pot. And when you have no idea about your opponent’s THE

Kaizen OF POKER 165

holdings, you cannot possibly relate the quality of your hand to the purported strength of his, and that’s a major disadvantage. TIP: If you are on a draw and aren’t good at math. Try this:

• •

If it’s a big pot and will cost you a little, go for it. If it’s a little pot and will cost you a lot, fold.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #26: I will play hands correctly in position.

166 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

twenty-seven. DID YOU

DO SOME MATH AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE SIZE OF THE POT AND POT ODDS?

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

POSITION IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT IN BIG-BET POKER In no-limit or pot-limit games, acting last is even more important. This is because of implied odds, which can be thought of as the ratio of what you think you will win — and this includes money that will probably be wagered on subsequent rounds — to the cost of a current bet. Here’s how this works. Suppose there’s $20 in the pot, and your opponent bets $20. The current odds offered by the pot are $40 ($20 in the pot plus the $20 your opponent just wagered) to $20 (your cost to call). And $40-to-$20 is the equivalent of 2-to-1. But if you estimate that your opponent will pay off a $100 bet if you make your hand, your implied odds are not 2-to-1. They are 167

$140-to-$20, or 7-to-1. The latter is a lot more attractive than the 2-to-1 current odds, which is why no-limit and pot-limit games are often predicated on implied odds. But in fixed-limit games, where your next wager can never be as large a multiple of the current wager as it so often is in a no-limit or pot-limit game, the concept of implied odds, although still important, is not as significant. With the right implied odds, you can afford to see the flop in potand no-limit games for one bet with some relatively weak hands. If you’re lucky, and the flop hits one of these marginal hands twice or three times, you can bet big with the potential of trapping opponents for most or all of their chips, because the strength of your hand will be significantly disguised. If you saw the flop with a weak hand, such as 5{4{ against three others, and the flop was 3-2-A or K-5-4, you are likely to have the best hand on the flop. Anyone with an ace in his hand will call your bet or come out betting into your straight if he acts before you. And when you flop two pair, you should get action from anyone holding a king in his hand. These hands are not completely immune to danger. In the last case, a running pair on the last two cards would give the player with a king in his hand two bigger pair than yours. You do figure to be in the lead on the flop, however, and the odds favor you winning the pot by hand’s end.

LATER FOLDS The longer you’re involved in a hand, the more difficult it becomes to fold. Often the size of the pot has grown big enough to make drawing correct, even when your chances of winning might be pretty slim. The opposite can be true, too. If you’ve flopped a straight draw against only one opponent in a hold’em game, chances are you will not be getting the right odds to keep calling. 168 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

Sometimes you’ll find out via the betting and raising that you are not the favorite, even when you hold what is ordinarily a good hand. You might have been the aggressor before the flop with A-K, or been fortunate enough to see an ace hit the board, watching in shocked indignation when there’s a bet, a call, and a raise before it’s your turn to act. Top pair, even with top kicker, is probably no good any longer, particularly if the board contains three cards of the same suit, or an obvious straight possibility. Even if there’s no flush possible, one of your opponents might have made a set and is now a prohibitive favorite. You can keep calling — your opponents will love you for it if you do — or you can do the smart thing and save your money for a better opportunity. Sometimes you’ll find situations that are easy folds; other times they are strictly judgment calls. These are based on how well you read your opponents and your analysis of the betting and raising that has transpired before the action reaches you. Experience helps. So does your willingness to see things as they really are. Do not play poker with a denial mindset that allows you to talk yourself into calling with top pair because some part of your brain wants to believe your opponent really did not make a flush.

WHEN THE POT GROWS LARGE Speaking in terms of limit poker, sometimes the pot grows so big that, even when most of the signals suggest you are beaten, you will wind up calling one last bet on the river. It happens. Although calling when you should have folded and folding when you should have called are both errors, it’s a lot more catastrophic to fold the winning hand (and lose the entire pot in the process) than it is to call with the worst hand and lose one additional bet. If you fold a hand that would have won, you might lose 10 or 12 bets. If you win at the rate of one big bet per hour, it can take you an entire day, or longer, to overcome that mistake. You usually don’t have to do perfect math to play good poker. Like THE

Kaizen OF POKER 169

a cook who doesn’t use measuring spoons and cups, you can eyeball the bet and the pot. The guy bets $25 on the flop. You are deciding whether to call. The pot has about $10. You have at least four outs for an inside straight. You may even have a flush draw. You may even have the probable best hand, but is it worth it to get involved? No. Here’s a good thought: “I have top pair, and probably have the best hand, but I’m not going to get involved, as I only have five dollars invested and the flop has three to a suit that I don’t have.” To me, poker is a combination of psychology, art, and science. To play your best, it is important to know and apply at least a bit of math. See Minimal Math in Part Two.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #27: I will do some math and

pay attention to the size of the pot and pot odds.

170 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

twenty-eight. DID YOU BET CORRECTLY?

“Doing the right thing is easy — knowing the right thing to do is difficult.” — taro gold

Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

Once I was playing in a tournament at the Bellagio. I had A-4 suited in the big blind, and I was determined to win the pot against the guy who was bluffing my big blind every single round. I let the pot get very high, and in the end he made a bet, and I thought and thought and backed away. The guy showed me A-4 (which means we would have chopped the big pot). I was very upset because that hand was pivotal and cost me moving higher in the tournament. T.J. Cloutier was watching the hand, and asked me what I had. I didn’t want to tell him I knew the guy was bluffing and that I also had A-4, and so I told him a different hand, which was better. He said something like, “That should be a lesson to you; if you had played it correctly, you

171

would not have lost.” Well, that was my first realization that there was a correct way to play every hand.

HOW LIFE IS BOTH LIKE AND UNLIKE A POKER GAME There’s not a poker pundit anywhere who has not observed that the lessons of poker and the lessons of life are remarkably similar. Both the real world and poker require participants to make decisions on incomplete information, be observant about our clients and colleagues, take calculated risks, control our emotions, bluff on occasion, maintain an image and a game face, and take advantage of fortune whenever it favors us. But life and poker are not identical. It’s hard to function effectively in society if you develop a reputation as a liar or an inveterate bluffer. And the idea of beneficent giving is unheard of in poker. While the ability to deceive can be used to great advantage at the poker table, it’s a mixed blessing in the real world. The con man that deceives people in order to get his hands on their money is reviled. But little white lies are necessary in order to smooth social interaction. After all, when someone says, “How are you?” they’re not really interested in hearing a litany of all your woes. What do you tell a spouse who asks, “Do I look fat in this?” The only answer one can give is, “Absolutely not; you look spectacular!” The real world is a bit more complicated than life at the poker table. Nevertheless, poker does serve as a good model for life. As in life, sometimes you only get one chance to do the right thing. Sometimes you’ll even get two chances, but you rarely get three. If you are lucky enough to get a second chance, don’t blow it! That goes for life and poker. Woo-woo. If you go to the gym in the morning, later that day someone will send you flowers out of the blue. The universe has a way of rewarding good choices — sometimes as a direct result of your actions, and sometimes not. The same is true in poker. Make the right decisions, 172 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

and you’ll experience a little more than your share of luck, which will help you along the rest of the way. In life and in poker, if you’re polite, professional, polished, patient, powerful, and in good position, plenty of success will follow. In poker, as in life, when you see challenge as an opportunity, you’ll improve every difficult experience and reap unimaginable rewards. After all, when you’ve accomplished something that at first seemed difficult or impossible, it is infinitely more satisfying than simply doing something that comes easy to you.

IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE, DO IT YOURSELF When you’re in late position and you’ve bet or raised pre-flop, many players will expect you to do their raising for them. Don’t do other people’s betting — unless you’re trapping them. Bet and raise only when you think it’s to your own advantage. If you think someone is limping with the intent to check-raise or bet into you later, as Mike Caro would say, “Disappoint them.”

KEEP YOUR OPTIONS OPEN

Poker is like riding in a cab. If you’re a smart cab driver, you won’t work a street without an exit. It’s better to leave your options open, turning when the lights and traffic are favorable to you. Same with poker. Keep your options open. Be ready to get out of a bad situation. Step on the gas when the coast is clear.

{zyx

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 173

WHY SO MUCH? Manipulating the odds happens all the time in no-limit and pot-limit games, where you have the latitude of controlling the size of the pot by the size of your bet. When you bet correctly with this in mind, you can control the pot odds offered to your opponent — the very odds he should consider in relation to the odds against making his hand before he decides to call. That’s something you can’t do in a limit game. If you want your opponent to fold his draw, you can make any call by him a mistake. Let’s say you flopped top set in a no-limit game, but the board contains two hearts. No one knows you’ve flopped a set. You can bet whatever you have in front of you. Because this is a theoretical example, let’s assume you have millions stacked in front of you. If the pot is a couple of hundred — or even a couple of thousand dollars — it doesn’t make a difference when you have a million dollars or more at your disposal. If you push all your chips into the pot, you’re probably not going to be called. If you are, your opponent is likely to have the nuts with a redraw to an even bigger hand. Nevertheless, if you bet some trifling, miniscule amount, you can count on being called by anyone with a draw who is hoping that a bargain-basement miracle completes his hand. And while he’s doing this, an imaginary cash register in his mind is tallying up all the money he’s hoping to win when those implied odds are realized.

A THEORETICAL OPTIMAL BET Both of these polar extremes can hurt you. But somewhere in the middle is a bet size that will accomplish its objective: drive out all the draws that might beat you, and encourage those holding lesser hands to call. While you’re sitting there deciding what to do with your set, you should be trying to land squarely on that theoretical betting amount. It should not

174 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

permit drawing hands to overcome the cost of the draw, but it should encourage anyone else with top pair, or two pair, to call. The size of that precise betting amount is subject to a number of contingencies, including how willing your opponents are to take the worst of it in trying to run you down. At a minimum, your bet needs to be sufficiently sized to reduce the payoff odds to less than 1.86-to-1 — the odds against making a flush draw. If you bet enough money so that your opponent is only getting a bit more than 1-to-1, you’ve manipulated the pot odds to a point where he can’t logically call your bet.

RAISING CONSIDERATIONS IN POT-LIMIT AND NO-LIMIT GAMES It’s incredibly important to play aggressively and protect your hand in most poker games, but it’s especially true if you’re playing pot-limit or no-limit poker. While the idea of “protecting your hand” seems defensive — the word “protection” connotes defending something and sounds inherently passive — hand protection in poker is anything but. When you bet out or raise, you are protecting your hand via a preemptive strike, and there’s nothing passive about it. Our advice to you is simple: KO your opponents now, before they have a chance to slide into the fray on the cheap and draw out on you. Pots in these games can grow incredibly large in the wink of an eye. You really don’t want to call and give your opponent an opportunity to come in for one measly little bet along with the chance of flopping a miraculous hand that will win an enormous pot for him. If your opponent wants a chance to stick around and try to flop a big hand, you have to charge him dearly for it. That’s not to say you should overbet the pot — three or four times the big blind is a betting standard that many no-limit players use. If he comes over the top and re-raises you, you’ll be forced to decide whether he’s bluffing, or whether he has picked up a big pocket pair such as K-K or A-A.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 175

That’s not going to happen all that often. Most players simply don’t re-raise as a bluff in a no-limit game. That’s because if their opponent really does have the goods, he figures to win a big, big pot. So the structure and potential for huge pots serves as something of a damper on many pot- and no-limit games. If you raise pre-flop, it’s like having four cards. You get to play the cards you have, plus the ones you represent.

WHEN TO RAISE OTHER CALLERS, AND WHEN CALLING IS A BETTER IDEA While you can — in fact, you should — raise the blinds when you are first to enter a pot from middle or late position, and have any reasonably strong hand, if there are a few callers already in the pot when it’s your turn to act, you’ll need a bigger hand to raise than you would if you were first to act. And you’ll need a bigger hand than that if you intend to cold-call a raise for two or more bets. Just how big a hand you need will depend on your opponents. If they are all very tight players, who seldom bluff and usually have the goods when they enter a pot, you can take it for a given that at least one of them, and probably more, have pretty good hands. If you have a pretty good hand, too — perhaps a middle pair such as 8-8, or a bigcard hand such as A-T or A-J — you’ll have to decide whether your opponents would call with lesser hands, or if they would raise from their position if they had the same hand you did. The object of this analysis is to determine how you think your hand stacks up in relation to the opposition’s. If you’ve got a better hand, you might consider raising instead of calling, especially if a raise will dissuade players who act after you from entering the pot, too. After all, it’s one thing for a caller in late position to take a flyer by calling with a hand such as 8-7, especially if a number of players have already entered the pot for one bet. It’s another thing entirely to cold-call a raise when 176 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

your hand no longer figures to be anywhere near the best. You’re faced with swimming upstream in an expensive pot with fewer callers than you need to compensate for the long odds against making the best hand.

FLEXIBLE THINKING BASED ON YOUR OPPONENTS’ ACTIONS What’s at work here is more psychological than it is anything else. After all, we love to play, to get involved, and to mix it up in pots when we have good hands. But poker is relative. And if before any action took place, you were sitting there thinking you were dealt a playable hand, it can be difficult to reassess your hand. This is because of the action that transpired in the moments between first viewing the hand and your turn to fold, call, raise, or re-raise. Sometimes a hand you were mentally prepared to play becomes a folding hand. Regardless of your first thoughts when you looked at your two starting cards, you’ll need to come to terms with the realization that poker is a game of relative values, and your hand must now be released. On the other hand, when there are already callers active in the pot, certain hands that you might have been preparing to release, such as 8-7 or a small pair, now become playable. The reason for this is the multitude of callers, coupled with the fact that you can see the pot for one bet and one bet only. This gives you a chance to take a shot at a pot offering huge implied odds if you get lucky. This opportunity arises as a direct consequence of all those additional players in the pot — some of them will presumably stick around to pay you off if you flop a set, a straight, or a draw to a straight that you are able to complete on a later betting round. What’s happening here is that the size of the pot and the low cost of getting involved makes it correct to play hands that do well against several players. Medium-sized pairs, such as 5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, and 9-9, and suited connectors, such as T-9, are examples of these hands. While I usually advise aggressive play as a key to winning poker, it’s THE

Kaizen OF POKER 177

important to play selectively, too. And hands like these simply don’t fare very well against few opponents because they usually need to improve to win. Needing improvement is a phrase that translates into a drawing hand, one that needs to be hit by the flop at least once, and possibly twice, in order to grow into the best hand. That means you need a few opponents who will build the pot to a size that offsets the odds against making the best hand. Calling is the right choice in these situations. You’re in a delicate place. Your hand is not strong enough to raise with. In fact, it does not figure to be the best hand right now. However, the pot odds are big enough to offset the longish odds against making your hand, and so folding would be incorrect, too. You’re left with calling as the best, if not the only, course of action.

FOUR BETTING Some players re-raise or check-raise as a ploy. You can tell because they do it often. Counter this bluff by re-re-raising, even when you’re on a bluff. An especially good time to do this is on the flop. This is the exception to “you can’t bluff a bluffer.” If you do this, you need to bet the turn strong. If you get called or raised on the turn, they’re not bluffing, or, best case, they’re on a draw.

MIRACLES HAPPEN

If you stay in for a miracle and you hit your miracle — bet it! In fact, any time you make the hand you were building toward, you should bet. If you can’t or won’t bet the hand you were hoping to make, why were you playing those cards in the first place? It makes absolutely no sense to play a hand you can’t bet. If you play this way, you’ll win the minimum on hands that capture the pot. But you’re likely to lose 178 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

the maximum on hands that are not completed. This is because the vast majority of your savvy opponents will charge you the maximum amount possible to draw to a hand.

{zyx

FREE CARD RAISE This concept is best explained and employed most in a limit hold’em game. If you raise to get a free card on a more expensive betting round, then take the free card! And later you can use the same move as a bluff. Raise on a flush draw. Check the turn, and bet on the river when the flush hits. Here’s an example of the free-card play. You’re in late position, and call with T{9{ after two opponents limp into the pot. Your opponent bets when J{9y4{ flops. To make the free-card play, you’ll need to raise, even though your hand is probably not the best one right now, especially if you know your opponent usually plays big cards such as K-J, Q-J, or A-J. Unless he’s flopped at least two pair, he can’t really be sure he has the best hand at this point either, so he’ll probably check to the raiser when the turn card is dealt. If the turn card is to your liking, go ahead and bet. If it’s not, and everyone checks, go ahead and check behind them. By doing this, you’ve spent an additional small bet on the flop and saved a big bet on the turn. The result: a small bet saved (if the turn card is not one you were hoping for) and an additional half bet gained from each opponent (if the turn brings the card that completes your hand). You may get a chance to bet the river, if your card comes. If not, you can fold, and you’ve gotten to the river for the cost of one small bet. One error you see all the time in hold’em games is one made by good-but-not-great players. They’ll set up the free-card play just as I described, and then they’ll come out betting the turn instead of taking THE

Kaizen OF POKER 179

the free card. We know what they’re thinking. “The only way to knock my opponents out of the pot is if I bet.” The problem is that a bet won’t eliminate anyone with top pair, so betting second pair rather than taking the free card that’s been offered is simply going to cost an additional bet. In essence, you’ve done your opponent’s work for him by helping the player with the best hand get more money into a pot he is likely to win. The free-card play is sort of a heads you win, tails they lose situation. It’s one you should make good use of whenever the opportunity presents itself, and making good use of it includes taking the free card when it’s offered to you.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #28: I will bet and play correctly.

180 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

twenty-nine. DID

“Those who are victorious plan effectively, and change decisively. They are like a great river that maintains its course, but adjusts its flow. They have form, but are formless. They are skilled in both planning and adapting, and need not fear the result of a thousand battles: for they win in advance, defeating those who have already lost.” — sun tzu

YOU USUALLY WIN WHEN YOU GOT TO THE RIVER? Playing well means you did. Needing improvement means you did not.

I sat down at a table and posted in the cutoff. I had A-2. When everyone limped or folded to me, I raised to 20. Only the big blind called. The flop was Q-2-8. The big blind check-called my $25 bet. The turn was a jack. Check, check. The river was a ten. He checked. I bet $75 representing A-K (remember, I had raised pre-flop). He threw away his A-Q. He believed I’d gotten lucky on the river. He made a huge mistake playing weakly, namely, not betting or check-raising the flop. He could have taken the pot away from me right there. If he had bet the flop or check-raised me, I would’ve folded my pair of twos with an ace kicker. That session, I played four hands. I won all four, and the only hand I showed was K-K-K. 181

ONE BLUFFER TO A HAND There usually aren’t two bluffers at the river. If one player bets, anyone else who either calls or raises can be counted on to have a legitimate hand. Sometimes you’ll find players who will bluff-raise, but it happens infrequently.

BEST HANDS TEND TO HOLD UP FROM THE TURN TO THE RIVER

What’s the message in this bottle? Every pro knows this, but surprisingly, not too many amateurs are aware of it. Most of the times you have the best hand on the turn, you stand a very good chance of having the best hand on the river, and you ought to bet. If you habitually check the river with a hand like top pair, good kicker, you are leaving money on the table. You’re also not doing much for your image, either. But this is about as easy a fix as there is in anyone’s poker game. Just bet the river. That’s all there is to it. Change your betting pattern from call, bet, bet, check, to this pattern: call, bet, bet, bet, and see for yourself.

{zyx

WHY CALLING A BET ON THE RIVER IS THE ERROR OF CHOICE It’s true that if you must make an error on the river, especially in limit poker, or in no limit, when the error wouldn’t cost you a significant portion of your stack, calling should be the error of choice. The price of a call is only one additional bet; the cost of releasing the winning hand in the face of an opponent’s wager can be 10 bets or more, depending on 182 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

the size of the pot. Because of the potential cost associated with folding what would have been the winning hand, it’s a huge error instead of a small, incremental one. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean a bet on the river should always be called. There are some occasions when it pays to toss your hand away when confronted with one last bet. Much of the time, decisions on the river are not all that tough. Your hand has either realized its potential or failed to do so. In any event, it no longer has any potential, and you can neither bet nor call because you hope your hand will improve on some future betting round. At this point either you made the hand you were hoping to make or you didn’t — and if you made it, you should bet. Or if you think no one is strong enough to call you, and you can get away with a bluff, you should make a bet that you think no one will call. One night I cashed in three racks of red chips in a 2/5 NL game. I was very proud of my reads, and could trace almost all of my haul to good calls. In one instance, a very good player who is generally thought of as tight called my $20 pre-flop raise. I had A-Q. The flop was A-9-5 rainbow. I bet $25 on the flop, and got two callers, and then the big blind check-raised to $125. I put him on a weak ace and called, knowing he would continue his play, and I was going to go with my read. Everyone else who had seen the flop dropped. On the turn, which was another nine, he continued as I had anticipated and went all in. I called. To everyone’s amazement, except mine, he showed A-8, and I started my nice run. Here is the thinking behind my read: All evening I had been showing some big laydowns. And I knew my $25 dollar flop bet looked weak to the big blind. Those two facts were enough to give him the confidence that he could run me off my hand. And those same two facts gave me the confidence to go with my good read.

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #29: If I am at the

river, I strive to be the winner. THE

Kaizen OF POKER 183

“Refuse to lower yourself to the level of your antagonist.” — taro gold “Make your spirit flexible, and nothing will ever bend you out of shape.” — taro gold

thirty. DID YOU

“Patience in one moment of anger can prevent one hundred days of sorrow.” — chinese proverb

GO ON TILT?

Playing well means you did not. Needing improvement means you did.

“Anger itself does more harm than the condition that aroused it.” — taro gold “Revenge is the way ignorant people express anguish.” — taro gold

EVEN GOOD PLAYERS GO ON TILT OR LET DOWN THEIR GUARD No one is perfect — no one I know, anyway. Poker is a game that can grab you by the gut and slam you back into your chair with a near-physical force. Although you might make the right play while your opponent plays like a donkey, you can still lose the hand because of the fickle turn of a random card. Nothing can be done about it either, except to take it in stride and go on to the next hand. Nevertheless, it’s easier said than done. When we get upset, we make bad decisions. Our guard is down, and our opponents can read us with ease. Our advice here is that good players can control their emotions, while weaker players frequently can’t. Anyone aspiring to expert play 184

can’t allow himself to look disappointed or elated — unless he’s setting up players to take notice of such things for a later sting operation. The key here is emotional control and control of how you present yourself at the poker table. Good acting skills are helpful, but you don’t need to be Brando or Streep to pull off the job. All you have to be able to do is give your opponents reason to think you’re going to zig, when you intend to zag.

SHOW AND TELL

When people show each other hands privately, they’re usually showing good hands and not outrageous bluffs. Some really confident pros, however, might use the opportunity to show their hands as an audacious bluff. Beware. Don’t get mad. Gather information and get even.

{zyx

SHOWING THE BLUFF Some experts advise never showing a bluff to your opponents. Others use a mixed strategy. They will show a bluff when they feel it will unnerve an opponent, but they’ll refrain from showing their hand on other occasions. Some players will never show down their good hands either, while others will sometimes show down their big hands. This tells an opponent, “Hey, I never bluff; when I bet I’ve got a good hand — just as big a hand as the one I’m showing you now.” In the 1997 World Series of Poker, at the final table, Stu Ungar was in the lead, but Ron Stanley was mounting a comeback and was closing THE

Kaizen OF POKER 185

in on Ungar. A big pot developed where Ungar made a huge bet, and Stanley thought and thought. Finally he threw his hand away, convinced that Ungar had him beaten, and in any event, Stanley probably did not want to lose all the chips he had so patiently built up over the previous 40 minutes. So he folded his tent. As the pot was being pushed to Ungar, he casually flipped his hand over with an air of insouciance. While the cards were flipping back down to the table, Stanley could see that Ungar had a meaningless Q-T, a complete bluff. Had he called, Stanley would have vaulted into the lead. But Ungar’s bluff-reveal so unnerved Stanley that he played himself out of the tournament a few hands later.

LEAVE YOUR EGO AT THE DOOR If you’re a good player, learn how to make them think you’re not. They’ll come after your chips, and you will take their chips. They will be left scratching their heads about how they lost to a bad player. This is because there is no way their ego will allow them to change their wrong assessment about you. Just prepare to be hated!

NOT EVERYONE IS GOING TO LIKE YOU ANYWAY In 1995, when the late Ken Flaton was vying for a championship title in Atlantic City, he was confronted with a choice that made him most unpopular. One of the players at the final table, a veteran player, suddenly needed to relieve himself in the bathroom. He kindly asked the other players for permission to step out since the tournament rules did not allow for the clock to be stopped before the end of the hour. All of the players except Ken said, “Sure, we’ll hold up play till you get back,” but Ken refused. He said no, and explained later that this man knew from experience how to pace himself. He should have known not to drink so much coffee. If he had to go while the game played on, he was 186 SHEREE BYKOFSKY

free to do that, but the tournament did not have to stop for him. The blinds were high, and the championship was at stake. What happened was that the other players at the table, as a favor, played so slowly that the man did have time to go and return. The man came back angry at Ken and on tilt. Ken ended up winning the tournament. Ken looked at this as an example of using the rules to his advantage. If enforcing a rule puts another player on tilt, so much the better. Not everyone would agree that Ken did the right thing. Outside of poker, most people would consider Ken’s actions cruel. But within the boundaries of the game, many would say what he did was not only acceptable but essential. What do you think?

KAIZEN RESOLUTION #30: I will strive to not

go on tilt; if I go on tilt, I will leave.

THE

Kaizen OF POKER 187

7+,57